Ambiguity Avoidance by Means of Function Words in English? Providing Additional Corpus-based Counterevidence

The present paper considers three types of constructions where optional function words have been claimed to be used primarily for the purpose of avoiding a global or local attachment ambiguity. a) In the absence of the complementiser in that-clauses, certain subject NPs might be (temporarily) misconstrued as direct objects of the superordinate verb. b) In the absence of the complementiser that, certain adverbials might be (wrongly) assigned to the subordinate or the superordinate clause. c) In the absence of a relativiser, certain combinations of the antecedent NP and the relative clause subject might be (temporarily) misconstrued as forming a single NP. The paper uses two corpus-based testing procedures to refute these claims. (i) Analysing otherwise comparable ambiguity-free and ambiguity-prone structures in a)–c) we find that they involve similar rates of function word use. (ii) Moreover, it is shown that a variety of other ambiguity-free constructions, containing the same or other optional grammatical markers, display similar distributional profiles.

Communicative Efficiency, Uniform Information Density, and the Rational Speech Act theory

One major class of approaches to explaining the distribution of linguistic forms is rooted in communicative efficiency. For theories in which the communicative efficiency of an utterance is itself dependent on the distribution of linguistic forms in the language, however, it is less clear how to make distributional predictions that escape circularity. We propose an approach to making distributional predictions for these cases by iterating between speaker and listener in the Rational Speech Act theory. Characteristics of the fixed points of this iterative process constitute the distributional predictions of the theory. Through computer simulation we apply this approach to the well-studied case of predictability-sensitive optional function word omission for the theory of Uniform Information Density, and show that the approach strongly predicts the negative correlation between phrase onset probability and rate of function word use that has previously been argued for and that has been empirically observed in previous studies.

Aeronautical and Aerospace Material and Structural Damages to Failures: Theoretical Concepts

The goal of this paper is to investigate the possible directions of some specified methods for aeronautical and aerospace material and structure effectiveness modeling and optimization. Multioptionality hybrid function uncertainty conditional optimization doctrine application is supposed to be implemented for a degrading failure problem optimal solution determination. The optimal solution is assumed to deliver the maximum value to the probability of damage but not the failure state of the studied material behavior. The principal supposition is that there should be some certain objectively existing value extremized in the conditions of the hybrid optional function uncertainty. There is a scientific proof for the choice of a good maintenance optimal periodicity method that fits the customer’s needs, taking into account the effectiveness functions pertaining to the options. The described doctrine allows obtaining the objectively existing optimal values not with the help of a probabilistic but rather with a multioptimal concept. The subjective entropy maximum principle is the other paradigm concept involved in the considered problem solution, which is an equivalent for the uncertainty conditional optimization at the optimal hybrid function distribution determination. By applying simplified, however possible, models and expressions for effectiveness, plausible results are obtained and illustrated in diagrams visualizing the situation and allowing for the selection of a good choice. The ideas of the required material method choice optimization with respect to only two simple parameters, nevertheless, develop numerous particular combinations. Moreover, an increase in the number of parameters and further complication of the problem setting will not change the principle of the problem solution.

Exchange of Disfluency With Age From Function Words to Content Words in Spanish Speakers Who Stutter

The main purpose of the present study was to examine whether the developmental change in loci of disfluency from mainly function words to mainly content words, observed for English speakers who stutter (P. Howell, J. Au-Yeung, & S. Sackin, 1999), also occurs for comparable Spanish speakers who stutter. The participants were divided into 5 age groups. There were 7 participants in Group 1, from 3 to 5 years old; 11 in Group 2, from 6 to 9 years old; 10 in Group 3, from 10 to 11 years old; 9 in Group 4, from 12 to 16 years old; and 9 in Group 5, from 20 to 68 years old. Across all groups, 36 of the 46 participants were male. The study method involved segmenting speech into phonological words (PWs) that consist of an obligatory content word with optional function words that precede and follow it. The initial function words in the PWs were examined to establish whether they have a higher disfluency rate than the final ones (J. Au-Yeung, P. Howell, & L. Pilgrim, 1998). Disfluency on function words in a PW was higher when the word occurred before a content word rather than after a content word for all age groups. Disfluencies on function and content words were then examined to determine whether they change over age groups in the same way as for English speakers who stutter (Howell et al., 1999). The rate of disfluency on function words was higher than that on content words, particularly in the youngest speakers. Function word disfluency rate dropped off and content word disfluency rate increased across age groups. These patterns are similar to those reported for English. Possible explanations for these similarities across the two languages are discussed.