A view from the North

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-143
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald

This chapter addresses the issue of coexistence of noun categorization devices within one language. Genders and other noun categorization devices—be they numeral classifiers, or other classifiers—are generally thought of as being relatively independent from one another. Co-existing and overlapping systems of genders and classifiers are cross-linguistically uncommon. The chapter shows that this is a feature of some Arawak languages from north-west Amazonia, two genders—feminine and non-feminine—are obligatorily marked on verbs and nouns, and demonstratives and other modifiers within a noun phrase. Classifiers used on number words, and in a variety of other contexts, categorize the noun in terms of its physical properties, and distinguish gender. Gender is thus integrated within the system of classifiers. Gender markers may co-occur with classifiers in one word. The chapter concludes that gender distinctions and gender markers are uniform across the Arawak language family, and can be reconstructed for the proto-language. The chapter proposes that classifiers may have developed separately in each subgroup within the family.

Author(s):  
Tran Thi Minh Thi

Abstract After more than four decades since its reunification since 1975, Vietnam has achieved remarkable results in social and economic development. With the rapid speed of recent modernization, society has loosened numerous old values related to the family and promoted individual freedoms. Marriage and family affairs, including divorce, have modernized with liberal characteristics. The paper examines the trends of divorce and reasons for divorce using statistical data from the Vietnam People's Supreme Court and from the government's annual population statistics. The analysis compiled and analysed a database of every divorce case at six urban and rural districts in Can Tho province. The analysis highlights changes in the reasons for divorce in the South in comparison with previous divorce studies in the North of Vietnam, discussed in relation to modernization, individualism and gender equality. The analysis is supported by interview data with thirty male and female divorcees.


Author(s):  
Peter Arkadiev ◽  
Yury Lander

This chapter describes the major features of the Northwest Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adyghe) language family, comprising Abkhaz, Abaza, West Circassian (Adyghe), East Circassian (Kabardian), and the now extinct Ubykh. Starting with the sociolinguistic setting of the Northwest Caucasian varieties and the history of linguistic research on them, the discussion then proceeds to a description of the most important features of their phonology, morphology, and syntax, concluding with a brief discussion of a number of typologically outstanding features. The chapter, based both on published sources and the authors’ fieldwork data, covers issues such as exuberant consonantism, lexical category underspecification, polysynthetic morphology, expression of spatial meanings in the verb, rich systems of tense, aspect and mood categories, finite and non-finite verbal forms, non-trivial noun phrase syntax, relativization, and complexities of clause-combining. Besides describing the features common for all the languages of the family, we focus on important points of variation among the Northwest Caucasian languages and their dialects, aiming at an adequate representation of the wealth of phenomena they present and highlighting the challenges they offer for typology and linguistic theory.


1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Bennett ◽  
Michael Mackie ◽  
Alexander S. Douglas

A family living in Lewis (a Hebridean Island off the north west coast of Scotland) affected by antithrombin III deficiency has been studied. Two members have died, one of massive pulmonary embolism and one of major mesenteric infarction secondary to mesenteric vein occlusion. A further individual has sustained major small bowel infarction secondary to mesenteric vein thrombosis but survived after two small bowel resections followed by anticoagulant therapy. Other members of the family have suffered from nonfatal thrombotic events particularly during pregnancy. 57 individuals representing several generations have been studied and will be presented. Levels of antithrombin III measured by functional assays correlated well with those of antithrombin III measured immunologically. 12 members of the family showed moderate to severe deficiency of antithrombin III, the occurrence of thrombotic symptoms correlating well with deficiency of this protein. Transmission of the disorder as an autosomal dominant disorder is confirmed in the patients studied and by historical evidence over many generations.


1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary McClelland

Gravid female Phocanema decipiens were recovered from the stomachs of freshly killed harbour (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). Ova dissected from the nematodes were incubated in seawater and the mean time to hatch varied from 8 days at 20 °C to 52 days at 5 °C. Posthatch survival of ensheathed larvae in seawater varied from 48 h at 20 °C to 140 days at 5 °C. Fifteen species of copepods collected from the North West Arm, Halifax, N.S., were exposed to freshly hatched larvae of P. decipiens. Exsheathed larvae of the parasite were subsequently detected in the haemocoel of 12 harpacticoid species including Danielsennia typica, Tisbe furcata, Ameira longipes, Enhydrosoma curticauda, and various undescribed species of the genera Halectinosoma, Tisbe, Alteutha, and Phyllothallestris and the family Diosaccidae. Phocanema decipiens also occurred in a cyclopoid copepod (Paracyclopina sp.) but calanoid copepods (Eurytemora sp. and Pseudocalanus sp.) did not become infected. The heaviest infections occurred in mature female copepods and prevalence and intensity of infection varied with host species. Adult male copepods and fifth copepodite females were lightly infected. Infected copepods survived for 3–7 days at 15 °C, 10–15 days at 10 °C, and 20–35 days at 5 °C. During the course of infection, larval P. decipiens grew an average of 60% and maximum of 130% in length but underwent little or no morphological change.


NeoBiota ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 79-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheruscha Swart ◽  
Vernon Visser ◽  
Tamara B. Robinson

Predatory crabs are considered amongst the most successful marine invasive groups. Nonetheless, most studies of these taxa have been descriptive in nature, biased towards specific species or regions and have seldom considered traits associated with invasiveness. To address this gap in knowledge, this study presents a global review of invasions by this group and applies biological trait analysis to investigate traits associated with invasion success. A total of 56 species belonging to 15 families were identified as having spread outside their native ranges. The family Portunidae supported the highest number of alien species (22). Most crabs had their origin in the North West Pacific IUCN bioregion while the Mediterranean Sea received the most species. No traits associated with successful establishment were identified, but this finding may reflect the paucity of basic biological knowledge held for many species. This lack of foundational knowledge was unexpected as crabs are large and conspicuous and likely to be well studied when compared to many other groups. Addressing this knowledge gap will be the first step towards enabling approaches like biological trait analysis that offer a means to investigate generalities in invasions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (0) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Katharina Herlofson ◽  
Svein Olav Daatland ◽  
Marijke Veenstra

The article addresses the strength and character of family responsibility norms in Eastern and Western Europe. The strength is measured by the level of support for filial and parental responsibilities (i.e., adult children’s obligations towards older parents and vice-versa) and the character is indicated by the priority given to the older or the younger generation. For the analyses, we employ data from thirteen Eastern and Western European countries participating in the Generations and Gender Survey. In general, family norms are stronger in the East than in the West, but it is difficult to establish where to draw a dividing line. The contrast between the two extremes, Norway and Sweden in the north-west and Georgia in the south-east, is striking. The remaining countries line up quite close along the geographical diagonal (from Scandinavia to Georgia). The character of the norms is less clearly distributed – whereas almost all countries in Eastern Europe give priority to the older generation, the picture in the West is more mixed. The results partly confirm earlier conclusions about east-west differences in family responsibility norms, but adding more countries to the analyses has revealed a more complex and ambiguous picture than presented in previous studies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Spiridonov ◽  
V. Schmatko

AbstractDuring the survey of Pachyiulus krivolutskyi Golovatch, 1977 (Diplopoda) near Nickel’ in Adygei Republic (Russia) in the summer 2009 the infestation of these millipeds with nematomorphs of the species Gordionus alpestris was revealed. The morphology of naturally emerging nematomorphs was studied in SEM. The partial sequences of 18S (883 bp) and 28S (393 bp) rDNA PCR-products were obtained and analyzed. An unexpectedly high level of differences between Gordionus alpestris found in diplopods of North-West Caucasus and other molecularly studied representatives of the family Chordodidae was observed.


Author(s):  
Isiaku Wada Bashir ◽  
Adama Grace Ngozi ◽  
Nwankwo Benedict Chimezie ◽  
Abida Ahmad Baba ◽  
Ali Tamasi Muaz ◽  
...  

The study investigated the effect of bibliotherapy on the truant behaviour of schooling adolescents in North West Nigeria. Two research questions were posed to guide the study. The study adopted a Quasi-experimental design. The population for the study comprised of 824 identified SSII schooling adolescents with truancy behavioural problems drawn from the four selected schools in the North West Nigeria. The sample size used for the study was 296 SS II schooling adolescents with truant behaviour. The study adopted a structured questionnaire which was developed by the researchers for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts drawn from Department of Educational Foundations (Special Education Unit), University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies, Kano State and Department of Psychology, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria. The reliability of the instruments was subjected to Cronbach Alpha Statistics and reliability coefficient of 0.91 was obtained. Mean score and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that school location is not a significant factor in the mean truancy behaviour of schooling adolescents; though urban schooling adolescents had a reduced mean truancy behaviour compared to their rural counterpart. The findings of the study with respect to the interaction effect of treatments and gender on schooling adolescents’ truancy behaviours revealed no significant interaction effect of treatments and gender. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that special educators, guidance counsellors, educational psychologists, and curriculum planners should plan a programme of intervention based on the bibliotherapy techniques for schooling adolescents.


Author(s):  
MARYAM NOURZAEI

Abstract This paper discusses discourse features such as tail-head linkage and repetition, development devices, associative strategies and subordination in oral narrative texts in the Koroshi (KoB), Sistani (SiB), and Coastal (CoB) dialects of Balochi, all of which belong to the North-West branch of the Iranian language family. The frequency with which these features vary with the dialect, and the variation can be attributed to different stages of orality. Three stages have been identified, with CoB and SiB at the ends of the cline and KoB located in between. CoB is the most conservative dialect, as different aspects of its grammar also show; it demonstrates a pure orality state by its frequent use of tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition, and by the relative infrequency with which it employs associative and subordination strategies. SiB and its close relation Turkmenistan Balochi [TB])1 use associative and subordination strategies more frequently, have fully lexicalised development devices and seldom employs tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition. This loss of oral techniques demonstrates that the state of narration in SiB has switched from oral to written style. Finally, KoB represents a language in a state of transition by using more unmarked tail-head linkage, repetition and juxtaposition and by a strong tendency to employ subordination strategies.


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