Accent in Japanese Phonology

Author(s):  
Haruo Kubozono

The word accent system of Tokyo Japanese might look quite complex with a number of accent patterns and rules. However, recent research has shown that it is not as complex as has been assumed if one incorporates the notion of markedness into the analysis: nouns have only two productive accent patterns, the antepenultimate and the unaccented pattern, and different accent rules can be generalized if one focuses on these two productive accent patterns. The word accent system raises some new interesting issues. One of them concerns the fact that a majority of nouns are ‘unaccented,’ that is, they are pronounced with a rather flat pitch pattern, apparently violating the principle of obligatoriness. A careful analysis of noun accentuation reveals that this strange accent pattern occurs in some linguistically predictable structures. In morphologically simplex nouns, it typically tends to emerge in four-mora nouns ending in a sequence of light syllables. In compound nouns, on the other hand, it emerges due to multiple factors, such as compound-final deaccenting morphemes, deaccenting pseudo-morphemes, and some types of prosodic configurations. Japanese pitch accent exhibits an interesting aspect in its interactions with other phonological and linguistic structures. For example, the accent of compound nouns is closely related with rendaku, or sequential voicing; the choice between the accented and unaccented patterns in certain types of compound nouns correlates with the presence or absence of the sequential voicing. Moreover, whether the compound accent rule applies to a certain compound depends on its internal morphosyntactic configuration as well as its meaning; alternatively, the compound accent rule is blocked in certain types of morphosyntactic and semantic structures. Finally, careful analysis of word accent sheds new light on the syllable structure of the language, notably on two interrelated questions about diphthong-hood and super-heavy syllables. It provides crucial insight into ‘diphthongs,’ or the question of which vowel sequence constitutes a diphthong, against a vowel sequence across a syllable boundary. It also presents new evidence against trimoraic syllables in the language.

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-138
Author(s):  
A. S. Bik-Bulatov

The article uses little known letters of M. Gorky, many of which were published for the first time in 1997, as well as findings of Samara-based experts in local history to shed light on the writer’s work as editor-in-chief of the Samarskaya Gazeta newspaper in 1895. The researcher introduces hitherto unstudied reminiscences of the journalist D. Linyov (Dalin) about this period, which reference a letter by Gorky, now lost. The paper details a newly discovered episode of Gorky’s professional biography as a journalist: it concerns his campaign against a Samara ‘she-wolf,’ the madam of a local brothel A. Neucheva. Linyov’s reminiscences turn out to be an important and interesting source, offering an insight into the daily grind of the young editor Gorky, providing new evidence of his excellent organizational skills, and describing his moral and social stance. The author presents his work in the context of a recently initiated broader discussion about the need to map out all Russian periodicals for the period until 1917, as well as all research devoted to individual publications.


Author(s):  
Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir ◽  
Eva Svensson ◽  
Stefan Nilsson ◽  
Anneli Ekblom ◽  
Karl-Johan Lindholm ◽  
...  

AbstractShielings are the historically known form of transhumance in Scandinavia, where livestock were moved from the farmstead to sites in the outlands for summer grazing. Pollen analysis has provided a valuable insight into the history of shielings. This paper presents a vegetation reconstruction and archaeological survey from the shieling Kårebolssätern in northern Värmland, western Sweden, a renovated shieling that is still operating today. The first evidence of human activities in the area near Kårebolssätern are Hordeum- and Cannabis-type pollen grains occurring from ca. 100 bc. Further signs of human impact are charcoal and sporadic occurrences of apophyte pollen from ca. ad 250 and pollen indicating opening of the canopy ca. ad 570, probably a result of modification of the forest for grazing. A decrease in land use is seen between ad 1000 and 1250, possibly in response to a shift in emphasis towards large scale commodity production in the outlands. Emphasis on bloomery iron production and pitfall hunting may have caused a shift from agrarian shieling activity. The clearest changes in the pollen assemblage indicating grazing and cultivation occur from the mid-thirteenth century, coinciding with wetter climate at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. The earliest occurrences of anthropochores in the record predate those of other shieling sites in Sweden. The pollen analysis reveals evidence of land use that predates the results of the archaeological survey. The study highlights how pollen analysis can reveal vegetation changes where early archaeological remains are obscure.


Author(s):  
Tania S. Zamuner ◽  
Viktor Kharlamov

Phonotactics and syllable structure form an integral part of phonological competence and may be used to discover other aspects of language. Given the importance of such knowledge to the process of language acquisition, numerous studies have investigated the development of phonotactic and syllabic knowledge in order to determine when infants become sensitive to these sound patterns and how they may use this knowledge in language processing. Considering that infants’ first exposure to linguistic structures comes from speech perception, we provide an overview of the perception-related issues that have been investigated experimentally and point out issues that have not yet been addressed in the literature. We begin with phonotactic development, examining a wide range of sound patterns, followed by a discussion of the acquisition of syllable structure and a brief summary of various outstanding issues that may be of interest to the reader, including production-related investigations and phonological modeling studies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 393 (7) ◽  
pp. 641-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Wang ◽  
Qian Liu ◽  
Jin-Chun Chen ◽  
Yi-Xian Cui ◽  
Bing Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) shows an antimicrobial activity towards two types of clinically relevant bacteria. The potency of hIAPP varies with its aggregation states. Circular dichroism was employed to determine the interaction between hIAPP and bacteria lipid membrane mimic. The antimicrobial activity of each aggregate species is associated with their ability to induce membrane disruption. Our findings provide new evidence revealing the antimicrobial activity of amyloid peptide, which suggest a possible connection between amyloid peptides and antimicrobial peptides.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 679-690
Author(s):  
V Caracuta ◽  
G Fiorentino ◽  
M Turchiano ◽  
G Volpe

Charred plant materials found in archaeological contexts are usually considered the most reliable remains for radiocarbon dating. Usually, seeds and fruits are preferred to wood fragments because their short lifecycle reduces the range of uncertainty of the14C measurement. A selection of short-lived samples, mainly from barley and wheat, from the Late Roman site of Faragola (SE Italy) were14C dated; however, the14C dates obtained were not always consistent with the chronology provided by other archaeological evidence. A careful analysis of all the macrobotanical remains found in each of the dated contexts provides insight into the origin of the plant material, helping to distinguish betweenin situand non-in situmaterial. The14C dates are reconsidered in the context of findings and the kind of material selected for dating. Using the archaeological context, a Bayesian model was employed to reduce the range of the calibrated date and thereby refine the chronology of the site on an absolute basis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-96
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Zolli ◽  
Christopher Brown

In June 1498, the Florentine government publicly punished and exiled the Piagnona, the lone bell of the church of San Marco, for its role in defending Girolamo Savonarola during the April siege that led to the preacher's execution. Drawing on new evidence, this essay offers the most complete account of this still poorly understood chapter in Renaissance history, examining its complex and conflicting motives. At the same time, the punishment of the Piagnona, and struggle for its return, affords uncommon insight into the culture's deepest structures of thinking about what bells were, and who had the legal authority to adjudicate their fate.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-383
Author(s):  
Frederic Amant

Uterine sarcomas include a variety of mono- and biphasic malignancies, whereas tumor biology varies from an indolent and hormone-sensitive growth pattern to an aggressive and nonresponsive disease that is inevitably fatal. Insight into these different entities has only been gained after careful analysis of clinical, pathologic and molecular characteristics during the last few years. Furthermore, the rarity of uterine sarcomas has motivated many to collect data from different subtypes and to report on the collective data in order to report on larger numbers. The current overview aims to provide insights of clinical importance into each type of uterine sarcoma, with a special emphasis on treatment modalities.


mSystems ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. Eddie ◽  
Zheng Wang ◽  
W. Judson Hervey ◽  
Dagmar H. Leary ◽  
Anthony P. Malanoski ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Bacteria that directly use electrodes as metabolic electron donors (biocathodes) have been proposed for applications ranging from microbial electrosynthesis to advanced bioelectronics for cellular communication with machines. However, just as we understand very little about oxidation of analogous natural insoluble electron donors, such as iron oxide, the organisms and extracellular electron transfer (EET) pathways underlying the electrode-cell direct electron transfer processes are almost completely unknown. Biocathodes are a stable biofilm cultivation platform to interrogate both the rate and mechanism of EET using electrochemistry and to study the electroautotrophic organisms that catalyze these reactions. Here we provide new evidence supporting the hypothesis that the uncultured bacterium “Candidatus Tenderia electrophaga” directly couples extracellular electron transfer to CO2 fixation. Our results provide insight into developing biocathode technology, such as microbial electrosynthesis, as well as advancing our understanding of chemolithoautotrophy. Biocathodes provide a stable electron source to drive reduction reactions in electrotrophic microbial electrochemical systems. Electroautotrophic biocathode communities may be more robust than monocultures in environmentally relevant settings, but some members are not easily cultivated outside the electrode environment. We previously used metagenomics and metaproteomics to propose a pathway for coupling extracellular electron transfer (EET) to carbon fixation in “Candidatus Tenderia electrophaga,” an uncultivated but dominant member of an electroautotrophic biocathode community. Here we validate and refine this proposed pathway using metatranscriptomics of replicate aerobic biocathodes poised at the growth potential level of 310 mV and the suboptimal 470 mV (versus the standard hydrogen electrode). At both potentials, transcripts were more abundant from “Ca. Tenderia electrophaga” than from any other constituent, and its relative activity was positively correlated with current. Several genes encoding key components of the proposed “Ca. Tenderia electrophaga” EET pathway were more highly expressed at 470 mV, consistent with a need for cells to acquire more electrons to obtain the same amount of energy as at 310 mV. These included cyc2, encoding a homolog of a protein known to be involved in iron oxidation. Mean expression of all CO2 fixation-related genes is 0.27 log2-fold higher at 310 mV, indicating that reduced energy availability at 470 mV decreased CO2 fixation. Our results substantiate the claim that “Ca. Tenderia electrophaga” is the key electroautotroph, which will help guide further development of this community for microbial electrosynthesis. IMPORTANCE Bacteria that directly use electrodes as metabolic electron donors (biocathodes) have been proposed for applications ranging from microbial electrosynthesis to advanced bioelectronics for cellular communication with machines. However, just as we understand very little about oxidation of analogous natural insoluble electron donors, such as iron oxide, the organisms and extracellular electron transfer (EET) pathways underlying the electrode-cell direct electron transfer processes are almost completely unknown. Biocathodes are a stable biofilm cultivation platform to interrogate both the rate and mechanism of EET using electrochemistry and to study the electroautotrophic organisms that catalyze these reactions. Here we provide new evidence supporting the hypothesis that the uncultured bacterium “Candidatus Tenderia electrophaga” directly couples extracellular electron transfer to CO2 fixation. Our results provide insight into developing biocathode technology, such as microbial electrosynthesis, as well as advancing our understanding of chemolithoautotrophy.


1970 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Željko Kurtela ◽  
Pavao Komadina

Having identified all the dominant factors and having puttogether a mosaic of all the factors resulting from a ship 's voyage,as well as a number of differently dimensioned criteria, theharmfulness evaluation method for water ballast managementon board has been elaborated. By careful analysis of the impactfactors to which status elements are adjoined, by the assignmentof harmfulness levels to the status elements, by determiningdifficulty factor values, by introduction of treatment methodsi.e. exchange of water ballast, certain characteristic managementscenarios according to ship type are developed. Cumulativescenarios provide insight into the total harmfulness ofwater ballast management. The introduction of a comprehensiveapproach results in the development of different scenariosapplicable to all ships. The established harmfulness evaluationmethod for water ballast management is applicable to all shiptypes, and it has been tested on various types of ships that weredischarging ballast in various ports worldwide.


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