scholarly journals Relative Absoluteness: The Case of Participial Clauses in Latin

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-99
Author(s):  
Beata Spieralska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Gallic Wars ◽  
Similar Development

The aim of this article is to reopen the investigation of the ablative absolute in Latin and to analyse this construction and its use from one angle, namely, the coreferentiality rules. The examples for analysis have been taken from the Gallic Wars. As has been noticed before, in several works, the use of the absolute construction in texts written by classical authors, such as Caesar or Cicero, allows us to formulate a rule concerning its coreferentiality. As far as the syntactical coreferentiality is concerned, the classical rule requires an absolute construction to be — unsurprisingly — absolute, i. e., non-coreferential. This rule seems to be increasingly ignored by later authors. However, a deeper analysis taking into account not only syntactical but also semantical coreferentiality shows that the absoluteness of the construction is not so absolute after all, even in classical Latin. The examples of such use of the ablativus absolutus may be seen as forerunners of the change that occurred between classical and late Latin. The author proposes a hypothesis that an independent but similar development of the use of absolute constructions in different languages may suggest that there is a kind of interlinguistic tendency to substitute nominal phrases for subordinate clauses, especially in spoken language.

scholarly journals A Study of Syntactic Complexity in Language Production by Chinese-Speaking Older Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Xinmiao Liu ◽  
Haiyan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Font Size ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
The Mean

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: ??; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;" lang="EN-US"><em>The syntactic complexity of language production changes as a result of ageing. In this study, we made a comparison between Chinese-speaking older and younger adults in terms of the syntactic complexity in spoken language production. To assess the level of syntactic complexity of language production, we applied the traditional measures of syntactic complexity such as sentence length, verbal fluency and the distribution of subordinate clauses. Results indicated that older adults showed a decline in the mean number of clauses, the proportion of right-branching clauses and verbal fluency. These findings indicate that there was a decline in syntactic complexity in spoken language production among Chinese-speaking older adults.</em></span>

scholarly journals Sætningskompleksitet i dansk

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Mads Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Complexity Reduction ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Similar Development

This article gives an introduction to linguistic complexity and investigates the complexity of sentences in Danish from a diachronic perspective. By taking a recursion-based approach to the phenomenon, it can be shown that in the old part of the corpus (eighteenth/ nineteenth century) sentences are more complex than in the new part (twentieth/twentyfirst century). For instance, the older texts are found to contain more clauses per sentence, more clause complexes and more subordinate clauses of a higher degree of dependency than the contemporary texts. The observation that a similar development occurs in Swedish and German should be considered when trying to explain the process of complexity reduction.

scholarly journals On adverbial clauses in spoken Lithuanian

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Erika Jasionytė-Mikučionienė
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Private Communication ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Pragmatic Inference ◽  
Adverbial Clauses ◽  
Adverbial Clause

The aim of the paper is to investigate adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession in spontaneous private communication. The study explores semantic relations between the main and subordinate clauses, grammatical features and predominant conjunctions.The data for the research was collected from the morphologically annotated Corpus of Spoken Lithuanian, namely, its sub-corpus of spontaneous private speech which is used at home, at friends’ place, or which is produced by close friends.The analysis of spontaneous private communication shows that the finite adverbial clauses of time, cause, condition and concession are related to a set of conjunctions, but other indicators such as the use of verbal categories (especially tense, aspect and mood), contextual lexical markers as well as pragmatic inference also help to determine the semantic relationship between the main and the subordinate clause.In a spoken language, temporal clauses are usually combined with the conjunctions kai, kaip ‘when’, kol ‘while’, less frequently – with kada ‘when’; causal clauses are combined with the conjunction nes ‘because; since’, less frequently – with kad and kadangi ‘because’; conditional clauses are typically combined with the conjunction jeigu ‘if’, less frequently – with jei ‘if’, concessive clauses – with the conjunction nors ‘though’. The conjunctions kai ‘when’, kol ‘while’, kadangi ‘because’, jeigu and jei ‘if’ correlate with the particle tai that is very frequent in a spoken language, while the conjunction nors ‘though’ – with the contrastive conjunction bet ‘but’.In the natural language flow, the structure of adverbial sentences is modified: other sentential and discourse units can intervene between the main and the subordinate clauses, and the adverbial conjunction moves from the initial to the medial position.Traditional Lithuanian grammars emphasise that the position of adverbial clauses is undefined: they can appear before or after the main clause. However, the analysis of spontaneous speech shows that the position of a subordinate clause is influenced by the semantic relationship between the clauses. If a subordinate clause refers to a previous action or event, then it dominates in a preposition. Besides, the position of an adverbial clause is also influenced by correlative conjunctions: the main clause with the correlative particle tai dominates in the postposition.The research also revealed that Lithuanian adverbial clauses could function at the discourse level: in dialogues, the structure of a complex sentence is broken down and subordinate adverbial clauses can acquire additional – discourse – functions. Adverbial conjunctions, in their turn, can indicate relations with a previous discourse. 

Spoken Language Production in Young Adults: Examining Syntactic Complexity

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1339-1347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn A. Nippold ◽  
Megan W. Frantz-Kaspar ◽  
Laura M. Vigeland
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Subordinate Clauses

Purpose In this study, we examined syntactic complexity in the spoken language samples of young adults. Its purpose was to contribute to the expanding knowledge base in later language development and to begin building a normative database of language samples that potentially could be used to evaluate young adults with known or suspected language impairment. Method Forty adults (mean age = 22 years, 10 months) with typical language development participated in an interview that consisted of 3 speaking tasks: a general conversation about common, everyday topics; a narrative retelling task that involved fables; and a question-and-answer, critical-thinking task about the fables. Each speaker's interview was audio-recorded, transcribed, broken into communication units, coded for main and subordinate clauses, entered into Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller, Iglesias, & Nockerts, 2004), and analyzed for mean length of communication unit and clausal density. Results Both the narrative and critical-thinking tasks elicited significantly greater syntactic complexity than the conversational task. It was also found that syntactic complexity was significantly greater during the narrative task than the critical-thinking task. Conclusion Syntactic complexity was best revealed by a narrative task that involved fables. The study offers benchmarks for language development during early adulthood.

scholarly journals PENANDA KALA ABSOLUT DALAM BAHASA MAKASSAR (Absolute Tense Markers in Makassarese Language)

Kandai ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
NFN Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Adequate Description ◽  
Research Results ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Regional Language ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Descriptive Method

Bahasa Makassar, sebagaimana bahasa daerah di Sulawesi Selatan pada umumnya, juga mengenal penanda kala yang digunakan dalam percakapan sehari-hari oleh masyarakat pendukungnya. Penelitian ini membahas kala absolut dalam bahasa Makassar, khususnya mengenai ciri-ciri kala, identifikasi bentuk kala, dan makna yang diungkapkan.  Tujuan penelitian memperoleh deskripsi yang memadai tentang pernyataan kala absolut dalam bahasa Makassar, yang diungkapkan secara leksikal, beserta makna yang dikandung oleh pernyataan kala absolut tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan beberapa tahapan, yaitu (1) pengumpulan data dengan menerapkan teknik wawancara langsung dan seterusnya dengan narasumber kemudian mencocokan dengan bahasa yang dikuasai oleh peneliti sebagai penutur bahasa Makassar, lalu merekam dan mencatat hasil wawancara tersebut, (2) pengolahan data, pertama-tama dilakukan transkripsi data dari bahasa lisan ke bahasa tulis, lalu diklasifikasikan berdasarkan bentuk dan makna yang dikandungnya, dan (3) tahap penganalisisan data. Data yang sudah dikumpulkan dianalisis dengan menerapkan teknik distribusi untuk menguji keterangan letak antara leksem yang satu dengan leksem yang lainnya, berdasarkan waktu yang ditunjukkan. Sumber data diperoleh dari bahasa lisan dan bahasa tertulis. Bahasa lisan diperoleh dari narasumber (informan) dan bahasa tertulis yang diperoleh dari hasil penelitian dan buku-buku yang relevan dengan penelitian ini sebagai sumber acuan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penanda kala absolut dibentuk dari adverbia temporal yang dinyatakan dalam bentuk leksikal.The language of Makassarese, as well as regional language in South Sulawesi in general, also recognizes the markers used in conversations by the support community. This study discusses the absolute tense in Makassar language, especially regarding the characteristics of tense, tense identification, aspect, and modalities; as well as form, and meaning expressed. The purpose of this study to obtain an adequate description of the absolute tense makers in Makasarese language, which is expressed lexically, along with the meaning contained in the absolute tense markers. This research uses descriptive method with several techniques. (1) Data is collected by recording the direct interview with language informant then the data collected is matched with the language mastered by the researcher as a native speaker of Makassarese language.(2) The data is then transcribed is the analyzed; based on the from spoken language to written language; the it is classified according to the form and the meaning it contains. (3) The data is then analyzed based on the time it is designated. The data is collected from spoken and written languages. Oral language is derived from informants and written language is obtained from research results and books relevant to this research, i.e. as references. The results show that absolute tense markers are found in the form of temporal adverbs expressed in lexical forms.

scholarly journals Entwicklung der Verbstellung beim fortgeschrittenen Erwerb des Deutschen als Fremdsprache

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Kamil Długosz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Correct Usage ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
The Moment ◽  
German Syntax

This article investigates the acquisition of verb placement in German as a foreign language at an advanced stage of development. The main objective of the investigation is to analyse written and spoken language production in terms of the use of subject-verb-inversion, verbal bracket, and verb-final placement in subordinate clauses. The results reveal a discrepancy between written and spoken language production with respect to correct usage of the verb placement rules. While correctness in the written production task exceeded 97% for all phenomena, the oral translation task generated less correct sentences, but only for inversion and verb-final placement. The non-target usage of inversion and verb-final pattern in spoken production points to processing problems when translating from Polish into German, which are further confirmed by lower accuracy for these two phenomena. At the moment of testing, the verbal bracket has already been acquired, which is in line with the universal developmental sequence in the acquisition of German syntax.

Bulk standards for low-temperature biological x-ray microanalysis

1984 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 282-283
Author(s):  
P. Echlin ◽  
M. McKoon ◽  
E.S. Taylor ◽  
C.E. Thomas ◽  
K.L. Maloney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Separation ◽  
Low Temperature ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
Salt Solutions ◽  
Absolute Concentration ◽  
Cooling Process ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Analytical Procedures ◽  
Electrical Conductors

Although sections of frozen salt solutions have been used as standards for x-ray microanalysis, such solutions are less useful when analysed in the bulk form. They are poor thermal and electrical conductors and severe phase separation occurs during the cooling process. Following a suggestion by Whitecross et al we have made up a series of salt solutions containing a small amount of graphite to improve the sample conductivity. In addition, we have incorporated a polymer to ensure the formation of microcrystalline ice and a consequent homogenity of salt dispersion within the frozen matrix. The mixtures have been used to standardize the analytical procedures applied to frozen hydrated bulk specimens based on the peak/background analytical method and to measure the absolute concentration of elements in developing roots.

A Quantitative Ultrastructural Study of Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes Containing Parallel Tubular Arrays in Epstein-Barr Virus and Cytomegalo-Virus Mononucleosis

1981 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
C. M. Payne ◽  
P. M. Tennican
Keyword(s):  
Peripheral Blood ◽  
Lymphocyte Count ◽  
Epstein Barr Virus ◽  
Absolute Lymphocyte Count ◽  
Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes ◽  
Clinical State ◽  
Barr Virus ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Epstein Barr ◽  
Tubular Arrays

In the normal peripheral circulation there exists a sub-population of lymphocytes which is ultrastructurally distinct. This lymphocyte is identified under the electron microscope by the presence of cytoplasmic microtubular-like inclusions called parallel tubular arrays (PTA) (Figure 1), and contains Fc-receptors for cytophilic antibody. In this study, lymphocytes containing PTA (PTA-lymphocytes) were quantitated from serial peripheral blood specimens obtained from two patients with Epstein -Barr Virus mononucleosis and two patients with cytomegalovirus mononucleosis. This data was then correlated with the clinical state of the patient.It was determined that both the percentage and absolute number of PTA- lymphocytes was highest during the acute phase of the illness. In follow-up specimens, three of the four patients' absolute lymphocyte count fell to within normal limits before the absolute PTA-lymphocyte count.In one patient who was followed for almost a year, the absolute PTA- lymphocyte count was consistently elevated (Figure 2). The estimation of absolute PTA-lymphocyte counts was determined to be valid after a morphometric analysis of the cellular areas occupied by PTA during the acute and convalescent phases of the disease revealed no statistical differences.

Polarity Determination in Sphalerite and Wurtzite Structures

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 500-501
Author(s):  
Stuart McKernan ◽  
C. Barry Carter
Keyword(s):  
Opposite Polarity ◽  
Single Domain ◽  
Polar Material ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Dynamical Interaction ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Polarity Determination ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Microscopic Techniques

The determination of the absolute polarity of a polar material is often crucial to the understanding of the defects which occur in such materials. Several methods exist by which this determination may be performed. In bulk, single-domain specimens, macroscopic techniques may be used, such as the different etching behavior, using the appropriate etchant, of surfaces with opposite polarity. X-ray measurements under conditions where Friedel’s law (which means that the intensity of reflections from planes of opposite polarity are indistinguishable) breaks down can also be used to determine the absolute polarity of bulk, single-domain specimens. On the microscopic scale, and particularly where antiphase boundaries (APBs), which separate regions of opposite polarity exist, electron microscopic techniques must be employed. Two techniques are commonly practised; the first [1], involves the dynamical interaction of hoLz lines which interfere constructively or destructively with the zero order reflection, depending on the crystal polarity. The crystal polarity can therefore be directly deduced from the relative intensity of these interactions.

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