Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Comparative and general Pronoun'
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Huang, Jianqiao Caroline, and 黃劍橋. "Is the overt pronoun constraint learnable?" Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/212621.
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Studies on implicit learning have provided evidence for L2 acquisition of syntactic features, yet limited effort has been made to gauge the applicability of the implicit learning paradigm on syntactic structures that are posited by nativists as innate and need not to be learned. This thesis investigates the implicit learning of the Overt Pronoun Constraint(OPC), a claimed UG-derived constraint (White, 2003a,b; Hawkins, 2008)that prevents overt pronouns from taking quantified NPs as antecedents in null-argument languages(Montalbetti, 1983), and seeks alternative explanations to such knowledge from the usage-based perspective in SLA. In Experiment 1, participants’L1 prior knowledge of the binding constraint of the overt pronoun he in Mandarin Chinese and English was investigated respectively. Results show that Chinese participants accepted the bound variable interpretation of the pronoun他 (he) when the matrix subject (the subject of the main clause) was 有人someone, suggesting that the OPC may not be fully applicable in Chinese, and that the OPC may not be a universal phenomenon in all null-argument languages as claimed by nativists (e.g. Kanno, 1997). In terms of English participants, they rejected bound variable interpretations more often when the matrix subject of the sentence was a quantified NP than when it was a referring NP, indicating some biases of the interpretation towards the reference of the overt pronoun. Potential explanations for these cross-linguistic differences include the popularized use of singular they in English (Bhat, 2004) to refer to gender-ambiguous antecedents, and the degree of consistency in definiteness between the matrix subject and the pronoun as the sub-clause subject. In Experiment 2, Chinese L1 speakers were exposed to a semi-artificial language system that combined the binding constraint of the Japanese pronoun “kare” with Chinese to see whether they could acquire the OPC implicitly. The learning was measured by a timed Grammatical Judgment Test (GJT), and awareness was assessed by confidence ratings, source attributions and verbal reports. Results show that learning effect (both implicit and explicit) was observed in the Chinese group. In Experiment 3, Chinese participants were exposed to a semi-artificial language system that combined the overt pronoun binding constraint with their L2 English, and no learning effect was observed in this group, indicating that implicit learning could be affected by participants’L2 proficiency. In Experiment 4, the implicit learning of the pronoun constraint by English native speakers was investigated and L1 transfer effect was found in this experiment. To sum up, results show that the interpretation bias of the overt pronoun might be learned implicitly, although the learning process could be affected by participants’ prior linguistic knowledge. It also suggests that this bias might be learned without the assumption of UG existence, which show support for the usage-based approach in SLA.published_or_final_version
English
Master
Master of Philosophy
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Zhang, Min. "A contrastive study of demonstratives in English and Chinese." Virtual Press, 1991. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/774752.
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This dissertation is a contrastive study of the semantics, pragmatics, and discourse functions of demonstratives in English and Chinese.It is shown that there is a metaphorical relationship between the basic semantic properties of demonstratives and their various uses in the two languages. The proximal demonstrative tends to be used for spatial, temporal, or emotional closeness, or for a foregrounded referent, whereas the distal demonstrative is usually used for spatial, temporal, or emotional remoteness, or for a backgrounded referent. However, details of the metaphorical extensions in the two languages may vary. Functional differences between demonstrative pronouns and neuter pronouns in English and Chinese are also discussed. It is shown that demonstrative pronouns tend to code a higher degree of topic discontinuity or topic change, and neuter pronouns a greater degree of topic continuity in the two languages.In addition to contributing to an understanding of the basic factors governing the uses of demonstratives in English and Chinese, which could be used as a basis for further cross linguistic study, this research should also have some pedagogical value for teaching both English and Chinese as foreign languages.Department of English
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Boily, Manon. "L'emploi des pronoms dans des textes d'élèves de deuxième secondaire /." Thèse, Chicoutimi : Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2001. http://theses.uqac.ca.
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Håkansson, Jessica. "The Use of Personal Pronouns in Political Speeches : A comparative study of the pronominal choices of two American presidents." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-19502.
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Kevari, Mary Kathleen. "The role of universal grammar in second language acquisition: An experimental study of Spanish ESL students' interpretation of lexical pronouns." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2000. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1710.
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Antonelli, Valentina. "Genere e identità: analisi comparativa tra l'inglese e l'italiano." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/12696/.
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Questo elaborato prende in esame, l’apparizione nella lingua inglese e in quella italiana di nuovi strumenti morfologici utilizzati da coloro che rivendicano un’identità di genere che non sia quella maschile o femminile. Il dibattito intorno alla creazione dal basso di tali strumenti è molto acceso nel mondo anglofono, soprattutto su piattaforme di microblogging quali Tumblr. È proprio su quest’ultimo sito che è possibile rendersi conto di quanto le persone appartenenti alle comunità transgender, genderqueer e non-binary anglofone, o che gestiscono i loro blog in inglese, ricorrano in modo massiccio all’uso di strumenti grammaticali inediti per riferirsi a se stesse. Oltre a fornire un inquadramento teorico che si propone di spiegare alcuni concetti chiave legati alla transessualità e al binarismo di genere, si è voluto chiedere direttamente a utenti trans, genderqueer e non-binary di madrelingua inglese e italiana quali soluzioni linguistiche abbiano trovato per far fronte alle difficoltà nell’esprimere la propria identità. Le dieci persone anglofone e le sei italofone sono state contattate sul sito Tumblr e sono state poste loro le stesse domande. Le rispettive risposte sono poi state messe a confronto per evidenziare le differenze tra l’ inglese e l’italiano nel consentire o nell’ostacolare l’espressione di identità altre da quella maschile o femminile. Dai risultati si evince che il campione anglofono ricorre all’uso di pronomi personali di terza persona quali they/them e nuovi pronomi, mentre il campione italiano, non avendo questa possibilità, è costretto a modificare i suffissi di genere tramite asterischi e altri segni grafici. Si vedrà infatti come le due lingue differiscono nella morfologia, essendo l’inglese una lingua isolante e l’italiano una lingua flessiva. La varietà di risposte fornite sia dai campioni intervistati è estremamente interessante in quanto indica tutte le complessità, linguistiche e socio-culturali, che implica il rivendicare un’identità non riconosciuta a livello sociale e istituzionale.
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Kat, Michael P. "Comparative studies of microseismic source location techniques." Thesis, McGill University, 1988. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61709.
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Cheung, Yam-Leung. "The negative wh-construction." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1779690041&sid=25&Fmt=2&clientId=48051&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Walker, Katharine Aynge. "Seventeenth century northern noble widows : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2004. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/7766/.
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This thesis is presented in part fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Huddersfield. This thesis aims to explore the lives of seventeenth century noble widows in the north of England. The issues investigated include the demographics of widowhood, economics of widowhood, charitable activities, noble widows and the law, social networks surrounding widows and widows' political interests. Each of these subjects forms a chapter, where widows' contribution to each sphere through the seventeenth century is explored and assessed. The work also covers wider issues which affected women prior to and during marriage as they were also relevant to widowhood. Therefore it has been necessary to widen the scope of research from analyzing women's lives after the deaths of their husbands. Similarly, the geographical scope of the research, whilst basically entrenched in the north of England, extends in response to the variety of widows' experiences. The research has required examination of primary source material generated by widows such as letters, diaries, estate records and account books from institutions such as the British Library and private libraries such as that at Chatsworth. The second aim of this thesis is to examine more recent attitudes towards seventeenth century noble widows, encompassing the writings of nineteenth century historians and contemporary authors. The subject of this study is an under researched area and the thesis highlights the importance of the only part of a noblewoman's life that was lived as an independent individual. By scrutinising the secondary source material, challenging and criticizing general arguments proposed by other writers, debate upon the subject should be increased and new ideas expressed. Despite the social, legal, economic and political changes which took place throughout the seventeenth century, noble widows remained influential figures within the contexts of family, household and society as they exploited legal loopholes or accepted conventions in order to further their individual aims. This study advances the understanding of women's history by focussing on a neglected aspect of the subject, provides a new viewpoint for regional history and stimulates ideas for further academic debate.
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Shi, Yili. "Referring expressions in Chinese and English discourse." Virtual Press, 1998. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1117097.
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Noun phrases (NPs) with the same reference may take a number of different forms. For example, in English a particular conference can be referred to as a conference, the conference, that conference, this conference, that, this, or it. This dissertation attempts to account for the use of such referring expressions in Chinese, based on Gundel, Hedberg and Zacharski's (1993) Givenness Hierarchy, and compares the discourse use of Chinese referring expressions with those of English.The Givenness Hierarchy is given below:THE GIVENNESS HIERARCHY:inuniquelytypefocus > activated > familiar > identifiable >referential> identifiable that{it}this{that N}{the N}{indefinite this N}{a N}this NThe Givenness Hierarchy correlates the form of referring expressions with their cognitive statuses, with each status being necessary and sufficient for the appropriate use of a different form or set of forms.The dissertation tests the Givenness Hierarchy to see if it adequately explains the use of referring expressions in Chinese. The data for this study are drawn from spoken and written texts from several different text types (cf. Biber 1986, 1988). The spoken data represent three different speech situations, i.e., face-to-face casual conversations, news broadcasts, and public speeches. The written texts represent different types, including short stories, novels, academic prose, magazine and journal articles, published letters and personal letters. The spoken and written data cover a range of formality and degree of planning.The results of the study show that the Givenness Hierarchy cannot account for the choice of form when two forms meet the sufficient cognitive requirements for appropriate use. More specifically, the Givenness Hierarchy fails to account for choices in Chinese between yi `one' NP and a bare NP when type identifiable is a necessary and sufficient condition for the appropriate use of both, or between nei `that' NP and a bare NP when uniquely identifiable is a necessary and sufficient condition for the appropriate use of both.It is proposed that within the individual categories of the Givenness Hierarchy, further distinction of the degree of discourse salience must be made in order to account for the distribution of Chinese NP forms in discourse. For example, the study shows that nei `that' encodes a uniquely identifiable referent and is used to increase referential salience, while a bare NP encodes a referent of neutral referential salience. Following Givon's (1984) line of research, the use of the numeral yi `one' is to code pragmatically important referents in discourse vs. the use of a bare NP to indicate referentially unimportant referents.To interpret the distribution of referring expressions in Chinese discourse, a number of properties of different expressions have been identified and characterized. The distal demonstrative determiner nei `that' has an associative anaphoric use, encoding an entity whose referent is uniquely identifiable based on what Hawkins (1978, 1991) calls P-sets, association sets. This function of nei as an associative anaphor demonstrates that its deictic function has become weak. In this regard, nei is beginning to function like the English definite article the.The distal demonstrative determiner nei has a recognitional use in talk-ininteraction, to use Schegloff's (1996) terms, negotiating shared knowledge and personal experiences.The demonstrative determiners zhe/na 'this/that' are studied in terms of word order variation. When in postverbal position, they function as definite markers, precluding indefinite interpretation of the postverbal NP. In preverbal position, they tend to increase referential salience of the subject/topic NP.The demonstrative pronouns are compared with the neuter pronoun to `it' and zero when referring to inanimates. The neuter to and zero tend to continue a topic, while demonstrative pronouns are likely to signal topic shift. This distinctive feature is shared by both English and Chinese.In sum, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of the use of referring expressions in both Chinese and English, which should be of interest both to linguists and to language teachers.Department of English
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Heinemann, Klaus. "Pre-incorporation transactions : a comparative analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59396.
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Whether in common law jurisdictions or in German civil law, the issue of pre-incorporation transactions has always been the subject of considerable controversy. Concerned with the promoters, third parties, the company and its shareholders, the law has found it difficult to balance these frequently conflicting interests without neglecting the need for clear and simple rules. Common law courts, sometimes excessively committed to legal principles, have even come up with absurd results.This survey looks at the various attempts made in order to reconcile legal principles and business requirements--legislative in most common law jurisdictions, juridical in Germany. It will critically examine the approaches taken in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions and compare their results and reasoning with the solution found in German law. It will be seen that even among closely related legal systems, results differ considerably. The survey will illustrate how established rules of law have turned out to be largely incapable of meeting the challenge of pre-incorporation transactions. From a comparative point of view, some suggestions will be made in order to achieve a solution that is more satisfactory in result and reasoning.
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Wilson, Ian. "Comparative genomic analyses of Entamoeba species." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2014. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/2007270/.
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Amoebiasis is the third-most common cause of mortality worldwide from a disease borne of a parasitic infection. It affects up to 50 million people annually, of which 40,000 to 100,000 cases are fatal. Entamoeba histolytica is an obligate protozoon parasite of humans and is the aetiological agent of the disease. Recent suggestions that other members of the Entamoeba genus are human-infective, and potentially pathogenic, have been investigated here. A draft assembly and annotation of the 25 Mb genome of E. moshkovskii strain Laredo is presented, to which multiple E. moshkovskii strains were mapped. The E. moshkovskii genome was found to be approximately 200 times more variable than that of E. histolytica. Performance of the four-haplotype test revealed that genetic recombination does not seem to occur in E. moshkovskii. As such, it is suggested that it be referred to as a ‘species complex’, rather than an individual species. A comparative genomic analysis of E. histolytica HM-1:IMSS, E. moshkovskii Laredo, E. invadens IP-1 and the avirulent E. dispar SAW760 was performed. Subsequent comparative analyses against members of genera representative of the diversity in the Unikonts clade enabled the identification of orthologous gene families unique to the Entamoeba genus. Analysis of virulence factors within this set revealed that gene families involved in adhesion of amoebic trophozoites to host cells play a key role in the development of invasive amoebiasis. The Gal/GalNAc lectins and members of the BspA family are of particular interest, being present in all analysed species, except for E. dispar. The presence of these key families, plus cysteine proteases, in the E. moshkovskii genome suggests that some sequence types within this species complex may be pathogenic. E. invadens was found to possess larger numbers of more variable genes within many virulence factor families, including the BspA family and the Gal/GalNAc lectins. This suggests that sequence diversity facilitates E. invadens’ polyxenous lifestyle. Finally, a novel species recently isolated from a human faecal sample - E. bangladeshi, strain 8237 – was sequenced. Its genome was assembled using multiple de novo genome assemblers and coding sequences were assembled individually. A combination of all methods tested was found to be beneficial in maximising the number of gene sequences assembled, which is advised as good practice in future similar assemblies. The phylogeny of E. bangladeshi, achieved using the combined assemblies’ outputs suggested that the novel species is human-infective. The work presented here utilised modern comparative genomic techniques to improve understanding of Entamoeba species, their capacity for causing disease and their potential impact upon the epidemiology of amoebiasis.
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Wang, Yixiong. "Comparative planetary circulation regimes in simple general circulation models." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669741.
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This thesis presents the studies of terrestrial planetary atmospheric circula- tion regimes using simplified GCMs with different levels of complexity. Two different versions of the simplified GCM PUMA (Portable University Model for the Atmosphere) are used — PUMA-S with Newtonian cooling scheme and PUMA-G with a semi-grey two-band radiative transfer scheme and dry convective adjustment. A series of controlled experiments are conducted by varying planetary rotation rate and imposed equator-to-pole temperature dif- ference using PUMAS-S, and by varying rotation rate, planetary obliquity, and the ratio of optical depth in long-wave (thermal radiation) band to that in short-wave (stellar radiation) band using PUMA-G. These defining parame- ters are further combined with each other into dimensionless forms to establish parameter spaces, in which the occurences of different circulation regimes are mapped and classified. For the PUMA-S experiments, very coherent trends when varying planetary rotation rate (thermal Rossby number) is found. It is demonstrated that the GRW mechanism is mainly responsible for the equato- rial super-rotation observed in our experiments. Regular baroclinic waves are obtained at intermediate values of thermal Rossby number and depend strongly on the strength of radiative and frictional damping. Global atmospheric ener- getics in terms of Lorenz energy cycle and meridional heat transport efficiency also exhibits strong dependence on planetary rotation rate from our PUMA-S experiments. Theories of geostrophic turbulence (especially the recently in- troduced zonostrophic turbulence) and jet formation are examined using the PUMA-S experiments. For the PUMA-G experiments, Similar trends are ob- served with respect to varying planetary rotation rate, while new regimes like strongly subrotating atmospheres are found when varying obliquity in PUMA- G. Tidally-locked planets are also studied by modifying the incoming stellar irradiation in PUMA-G. It is found that atmospheric optical depth in the long- wave band plays an important role in setting the heat transport efficiency from day-side to night-side. These results provide significant insights into the ter- restrial planetary atmospheric circulation dynamics and the inference of circu- lation regimes of extrasolar planets. Future studies will focus on the effect of seasonal/diurnal cycle, the parametrisation of eddy heat transport efficiency, as well as the modification of the two-band semi-grey radiative transfer scheme to incorporate pressure broadening effects
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Légaré, Claudette. "Les clubs pour personnes âgées à Ottawa : étude comparative." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5481.
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Smith, Anne Marie. "The appraisal remedy in corporate law a comparative study." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5717.
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Jacques, Sabine. "The right to parody? : a comparative analysis." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32990/.
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Copyright law grants exclusive rights to right-holders which prevent others from exploiting copyright-protected works without authorisation. However, this right is not absolute. Legislation includes specific exceptions which preclude right-holders from exercising their prerogatives in particular cases which foster creativity and cultural diversity within that society. The parody exception pertains to this ultimate objective by permitting users to reproduce copyright-protected materials for the purpose of parody. While the parody exception is not harmonised at international level, the EU Information Society Directive offers EU Member States the option of including a parody exception within national copyright legislation as part of a harmonising framework. The UK took advantage of this option, and introduced a new copyright exception for parody in October 2014. To understand the meaning and scope of the new exception in UK copyright law and to analyse whether EU harmonisation of the parody exception is achievable, this thesis examines and compares four jurisdictions which differ in their protection of parodies: France, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. This thesis is concerned with finding an appropriate balance between the protection afforded to right-holders and the public interest in encouraging parody. This is achieved by analysing the parody exception to the economic rights of right-holders, the application of moral rights and the interaction of the parody exception with contract law. As parodies constitute an artistic expression protected under the right to freedom of expression, this thesis considers the influence of freedom of expression on the interpretation of this specific copyright exception. Furthermore, this thesis aims to provide guidance on how to resolve conflicts where fundamental rights are in conflict.
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Sheikholeslami, Salmasi Kamaleddin. "Assessment and comparative analysis of Iran's mineral policy : lessons and recommendations." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape4/PQDD_0030/NQ64667.pdf.
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Eng, Dennis. "Process evaluation of general data migration guidelines : A comparative study." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Computer and Information Science, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-57440.
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Information systems form the backbone of many organizations today and are vital for their daily activities. For each day these systems grows bigger and more customized to the point where it is heavily integrated in the current platform. However, eventually the platform grows obsolete and the system itself becomes an obstacle for further development. Then the question arises, how do we upgrade the platform while retaining customizations and data? One answer is data migration which essentially is the process of moving data from one device to another. The problems of data migration becomes evident with extensive and heavily customized systems which effectively lead to the absence of any general guidelines for data migration.This thesis attempts to take a first step in finding and testing a set of general migration guidelines that might facilitate the creation of future migration projects. This is achieved using a comparative analysis of the general migration guidelines contra the process of migrating data between different editions of the Microsoft SharePoint framework. The analysis attempts to find out if the general guidelines are general enough for this migration process and leave it to future research to further assess their generality. This paper will also investigate the importance of using incremental migration and the ability to perform structural change during migration as well as how these issues is handled by the built in migration tool of SharePoint. In the end the general guidelines proved to be sufficient to express the SharePoint migration process and should therefore be used for further research to assess their worth in other projects. In terms of the second issue, the built-in migration tool proved weak in handling either incremental migration nor structural change which is unfortunate due to the benefits these features bring.
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Noe, Andreas Hans. "A comparative study of business students in Sri Lanka and Canada." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5861.
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Tuncer, Kilavuz Idil. "Understanding violent conflict a comparative study of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3278200.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Central Eurasian Studies, 2007.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: A, page: 4055. Adviser: William Fierman. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 7, 2008).
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Guo, Ling-Yu Tomblin J. Bruce Owen Amanda J. "Acquisition of auxiliary and copula BE in young English-speaking children." [Iowa City, Iowa] : University of Iowa, 2009. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/370.
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Howatt, Mary. "Object infinitival complements." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0001/MQ43884.pdf.
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Tanaka, Hidekazu. "Conditions on logical form derivations and representations." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0028/NQ50266.pdf.
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Hallon, Robert J. M. Brøondal Viggo. "Brøondal's system of grammar : a translation of, and commentary on, Morfologi Og Syntax (1932) /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1989. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phh192.pdf.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 1989.This thesis is a study of the grammatical theories of Viggo Brøondal ; the central part of the thesis consists of an English translation of his Morfologi og syntax (1932). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 386-416).
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Senturia, Martha Baird. "A prosodic theory of hiatus resolution /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9835402.
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Israel, Michael. "The rhetoric of grammar : scalar reasoning and polarity sensitivity /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9913154.
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Buhler, Patricia Lynn. "Prenatal care : a comparative evaluation of nurse-midwives and general practitioners." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/24489.
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The practice of midwifery by those other than physicians is illegal in Canada and despite recommendations of nursing, medical and consumer groups, no trials evaluating the effectiveness of the nurse-midwife as a member of the modern obstetrical team have occurred here. To demonstrate a nurse-midwifery model, four nurse-midwives provided primary care to forty-seven childbearing women and their families over a twenty-two month period in a maternity teaching hospital. This clinic presented a unique opportunity for comparing the prenatal care provided by nurse-midwives with that of general practitioners who attended deliveries in the same setting. Utilizing a retrospective chart audit, case control study design, the nurse-midwife cases (NM cases) were each matched to two general practitioner controls (GP controls) through the use of the hospital's prenatal data base. The matching characteristics included low risk status, date of delivery, age, parity, gravidity, previous pregnancy losses and census tract income. Prenatal criteria that had been developed and tested in "The Burlington Randomized Clinical Trial of the Nurse Practitioner" for assessing the quality of care were reviewed and updated for this study. With these criteria two blinded abstractors audited the prenatal record forms of all the subjects and scored them as either "superior", "adequate" or "inadequate".
Seventy-seven percent of the records of the NM cases received a
"superior" score, where as 60% of the GP controls' records received an
"inadequate" score [mathematical formula omitted] Overall, the general
practitioners' records indicated more erratic care than those of the nurse-midwives. Although the physicians met most of the initial assessment criteria, they failed to meet the criteria that evaluated the ongoing routine assessment process by recording an inadequate number of prenatal visits (36%), or by omitting urine test results (38$) and blood pressure readings (21%). No differences were found in variables relating to labour and delivery with the exception of the incidence of episiotomies. The results indicate that nurse-midwives as part of an obstetrical team are able to provide safe prenatal care to a low risk population in a Canadian urban context, and that their records are thorough and more consistent than those of general practitioners.Medicine, Faculty of
Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of
Graduate
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Lightman, Naomi. "Comparative health policy in Canada and the UK: an equity perspective." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=86743.
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This thesis compares the health care systems in Canada and the UK with a particular focus on equity of access and equity of outcomes. It explores causal factors such as organization, financing and delivery of care. The paper presents background and historical context on the two health systems, a review of current national and comparative international studies on health equity in each country, and qualitative analysis from four key informant interviews. Overall, the paper finds greater equity in Britain's NHS in terms of access to services and pro-poor allocation of resources than in Canadian Medicare. The Labour government is actively working to redress inequalities in health, while in Canada there are numerous barriers to system reform. Additionally, the current Conservative federal government has not made improving health equity a primary concern in Canada, and creeping privatization of the system is likely leading to further inequity.Ce mémoire compare les systèmes de santé canadien et britannique en apportant une attention particulière aux questions d'équité d'accès et de soin. On y explore les facteurs causals tels que l'organisation, le financement et l'offre de soins. Une mise en contexte historique, un état de la littérature et une série de quatre entrevues avec des acteurs clés dans les deux pays sont offertes. Ce mémoire conclut à une plus grande équité dans le système public britannique tant en terme d'accès que d'allocation de ressources au profit des plus démunis. En effet, le Parti travailliste britannique s'efforce activement de redresser les iniquités alors que le gouvernement canadien est confronté à de nombreuses difficultés dans ses tentatives de réforme. De plus, le gouvernement Conservateur canadien n'a pas fait de l'amélioration des conditions d'équité une priorité tout en tolérant une privatisation rampante du système qui mènera surement à davantage d'iniquités.
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Kubal, Chandrashekhar. "Comparative models of transplant and non-transplant human kidney disease." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3827/.
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Late kidney transplant losses along with chronic kidney disease in non-renal solid organ transplantation pose major problem in this field. To address this I compared ischaemia, interstitial scarring and inflammation on the renal biopsies from failing renal transplants and chronic kidney disease outside renal transplantation using native CKD as a control group. For matched renal function, a similar degree of interstitial scarring was observed across the three study groups. Ischaemia was predominant in failing renal transplants; conversely inflammation was predominant in native CKD. The relationship between macrophages and endothelial cells indicated that, despite a lower macrophage load, there may be an allogeneic impact of macrophages on endothelial cells. In the biopsies from CKD, mRNA levels for iNOS, arginase, CX3CL1, BCL-2, MCP-1/CCL2 and FSP-1 were increased in association with an increasing macrophage load. Macrophage load correlated positively with arginase/iNOS mRNA ratio, suggesting M2 phenotypic transformation of the macrophages. Co-localization studies, demonstrated an increased number of macrophages within 5 microns from endothelial cells in failing renal transplants when compared to chronic kidney disease. Further studies directed towards manipulating macrophage-endothelial cell interaction may be potentially beneficial in improving the longevity of renal transplants.
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Sykes, Britt-Mari. "Existentialism, psychology and religion, a comparative study of Viktor Frankl and Paul Tillich." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0007/MQ45251.pdf.
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Farrah, Jean-Simon. "Perceptions of old age in comparative perspective: does the welfare state matter?" Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=97193.
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One of the presumed consequences of the growing ascendency of population aging on social reforms and political discourses in Europe is a generalized uneasiness with old age in the welfare state. Drawing on the fourth wave of the European Social Survey, this thesis seeks to map out perceptions of old age across European welfare states. It argues that the welfare states theory can be a useful comparative tool to explain both individual perceptions of old age and intergenerational patterns found on European soil. Results show that the effect of welfare state types on individual perceptions is largely insignificant; rather, a clearer portrait of old age perceptions emerges when welfare states theory is coupled with an investigation of intergenerational patterns of perceptions and changes in old age policy.Une des conséquences présumées de la grandissante prégnance du vieillissement de la population sur les réformes sociales et discours politiques en Europe est un malaise généralisé envers la vieillesse dans l'état providence. À l'aide du « European Social Survey », ce mémoire cherche à tracer les perceptions des Européens envers la vieillesse. L'argument principal proposé est que la théorie sur les états providences peut être utile en tant qu'outil d'analyse comparative afin d'expliquer autant les perceptions individuelles de la vieillesse que les conflits intergénérationnels que ces perceptions occasionnent. Les résultats ne prouvent pas un lien significatif entre le type d'état providence et les perceptions individuelles sur la vieillesse; par contre, un portrait plus clair émerge lorsque la théorie de l'état providence est agrémentée d'une investigation des perceptions à travers les groupes d'âge ainsi que de l'évolution des politiques orientées vers les personnes âgées.
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Walsh, Linda. "The nature of morphological representations /." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=73987.
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Campana, Mark. "A movement theory of ergativity." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=39511.
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In this thesis, I propose a theory of ergativity in which NP arguments are checked for Case by moving to projections of agreement at LF. The Case-marking pattern of an ergative language arises when transitive subjects move to the projection of agreement usually associated with objects (AGR.o), while transitive objects and intransitive subjects move to the projection of subject agreement (AGR.s). While this proposal assigns the same underlying structure to clauses in an ergative language (unlike Marantz, 1984), it does have distinctive syntactic effects. In this it contrasts with a purely morphological approach to ergativity, such as that of Anderson (1976).Arguments can move to the specifier position of agreement, or adjoin to its maximal projection. Movement cannot take place across the same kind of position as the landing site, which leads us to predict that transitive subjects cannot undergo grammatical extraction in an ergative language. This prediction turns out to be correct in a number of languages, including Chamorro, Mam, and other members of the Mayan group. Our theory also allows for a plausible account of split ergativity--non-canonical patterns in an otherwise ergative language where transitive and intransitive subjects are marked the same, but behave differently under extraction.
The proposal that NPs are not checked for Case until LF entails that they remain in their base positions at S-structure. Evidence for this claim is adduced from the distribution of empty pronoun arguments whose contents must be identified. Our prediction is that transitive subjects in an ergative language will interfere in the identification of an empty object pronoun, since it is closer to the pronoun than its legitimate identifier, AGR.s. This is also shown to be the case.
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Goldberg, Lotus Madelyn. "Verb-stranding VP ellipsis : a cross-linguistic study." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=50177.
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This thesis presents a study of a construction which I refer to as Verb-Stranding VP Ellipsis. The construction is studied here, specifically, in two distinct senses. First, in chapter two, diagnostics are proposed by which the VP Ellipsis ("VPE") construction can be identified—irrespective of whether the main verb involved is null or overt. It is proposed that these diagnostics can be used to rule out the possibility that the data at issue are cases of other types of null anaphora, such as null arguments, Stripping, Gapping, and Null Complement Anaphora. It emerges from this section of the thesis that Modern Hebrew, Modern Irish, and Swahili have V-Stranding VPE data which form a natural class with English's Aux-Stranding VPE, while Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish do not. The second focus is the question of how V-Stranding VPE should be generated. Chapters 3 and 4 argue in favor of an analysis involving PF Deletion of a VP out of which the main verb has raised, and against an LF Copying treatment. These arguments, in part, involve the Verbal Identity Requirement on VP Ellipsis, a novel generalization involving strict identity in root and derivational morphology between the antecedent- and target clause main Vs of the construction. Within the previously known requirement that elided phrases express semantically Given information, I argue that this generalization results from the fact that the head of an elided phrase must itself express Given information—whether or not the head surfaces as phonologically null.Dans cette étude, on considère en detail une construction que j'appelle « L'élision d'une expression verbale sans l'élision du verbe principal » (anglais « V-Stranding VP Ellipsis »). Cette construction est étudiée ici, spécifiquement, dans deux sens distincts. Dans le chapitre 2, on propose des diagnostics grace auxquels on peut identifier la construction « élision d'une expression verbale » (« EEV », anglais « VP Ellipsis »), que le verbe principal dans l'expression verbale soit manifeste ou élidé. On soutient que ces diagnostics peuvent être utilisés pour éliminer la possibilité que les données pertinentes soient des exemples d'autres types d'anaphore nulle, tels que argument du verbe nul, le « Stripping », le « Gapping », et le « Null Complement Anaphora ». Ainsi, on propose dans cette section que l'EEV sans l'élision du verbe dans les grammaires de l'hebreu, de l'irlaindais et du swahili forme une classe naturelle avec l'EEV avec l'élision du verbe en anglais. On soutient aussi que cette construction n'existent pas en japonais, en coréen, en espagnol, ou en italienne. Ensuite, on considère la question de comment génerer les exemples d'EEV sans l'élision du verbe. Dans les chapitres 3 et 4, on propose une analyse qui utilise la suppression d'une expression verbale au niveau de la Forme Phonologique (« la suppression FP », anglais « PF Deletion ») aprês le placement du verbe principal a une position en dehors de l'expression verbale, et on presente une explication de la raison pour laquelle une analyse qui utilise des copies de la Forme Logique (« copie FL », anglais « LF Copying ») n'est pas viable. Ceci implique, en partie, la Condition d'Identite Verbale, une généralisation proposé ici pour la premiêre fois, impliquant une identité stricte de la racine et dans la morphologie dérivationnelle entre les verbes principaux des propositions antécedentes et des propositions ciblés. Dans le cadre de la condition connue selon laquelle les syntagmes élidés expriment une information sémantique donnée (anglais « Given »), j e soutiens que la condition d'identité verbale resulte du fait que la tete d'un syntagme élidé doit elle-meme exprimer l'information donnée sémantiquement—que la téte soit phonologiquement manifeste ou nulle.
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Collins, Jeremy Charles. "Grammaticalization and Greenberg's word order correlations." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B50534130.
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Word order universals constitute a well-known problem in language typology, first outlined in Greenberg (1963). It has been firmly established in databases of over 1500 languages that languages with verb-object ordering are very likely to have prepositions and noun-genitive ordering, while languages with object-verb ordering are very likely to have postpositions and genitive-noun ordering (Dryer and Haspelmath 2011). This thesis attempts to give a historical explanation for these facts in terms of the origin of syntactic categories: adpositions have historically developed from nouns and verbs (Givon 1984, Aristar 1991); and verbs often develop from nominalizations used with a genitive object. These types of grammaticalization can explain why adpositions retain the ordering of their source nouns or verbs, and why verb/object ordering often parallels noun/genitive ordering.
This historical explanation is elaborated on, with data from different language families. Examples of verbs grammaticalizing from nominalizations used with genitive objects are given, drawing on historical work such as Salanova (2007) on Brazilian Jê languages and Starosta, Pawley and Reid (1982) on Austronesian. Different languages show varying degrees of 'nominalism', the morphosyntactic resemblance between verb forms and noun phrases/nominalizations. Other languages show a less developed distinction between adpositions and verbs/nouns. These examples of gradience in syntactic categories are argued to be behind resemblances in word orderings. Language contact is responsible for preserving word order types, when languages undergo change in more than one word order (e.g. Greenberg 1969); and the difference in rates of word order change across constructions is argued to be behind hierarchies such as Hawkins (1983)'s Prepositional Noun Modifier Hierarchy. This explanation of word order universals contrasts with more mainstream accounts such as Hawkins (1994) in terms of processing efficiency, and Kirby and Christiansen (2003) in terms of learnability. While these explanations are perhaps compatible with the historical explanation, they are argued to be redundant; grammaticalization arguably is not driven or constrained by learnability and processing efficiency, with memetics, 'typological poise' (Enfield 2003) and language contact given as alternatives. Instead of reflecting functional biases, word order patterns are argued to reflect language history, both the history of language contact, and the history of syntactic categories developing through grammaticalization.published_or_final_version
Linguistics
Master
Master of Philosophy
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Chung, So-Woo. "Cataphora in discourse representation theory /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8424.
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Poirier, Josée. "Finding meaning in silence the comprehension of ellipsis /." Diss., [La Jolla] : [San Diego] : University of California, San Diego ; San Diego State University, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3358671.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2009.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 14, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Seal, Amy. "Scoring sentences developmentally : an analog of developmental sentence scoring /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access:, 2001. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd12.pdf.
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Sato, Hiromi. "Selection for clausal complements and tense features /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8432.
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Diessel, Holger. "Demonstratives form, function, and grammaticalization /." Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, 1999. http://site.ebrary.com/id/5000150.
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Revision of dissertation (Ph.D)--State University of New York, Buffalo - "Demonstratives in cross-linguistic and diachronic perspective".Includes index. Includes bibliographical references at the end of each section.
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Dérome, Léo. "Study of NGOs in development: A comparative analysis of CUSO and development and peace." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5792.
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Pal, Mahesh. "Factors influencing the accuracy of remote sensing classifications : a comparative study." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2002. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10314/.
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Within last 20 years, a number of methods have been employed for classifying remote sensing data, including parametric methods (e.g. the maximum likelihood classifier) and non-parametric classifiers (such as neural network classifiers).Each of these classification algorithms has some specific problems which limits its use. This research studies some alternative classification methods for land cover classification and compares their performance with the well established classification methods. The areas selected for this study are located near Littleport (Ely), in East Anglia, UK and in La Mancha region of Spain. Images in the optical bands of the Landsat ETM+ for year 2000 and InSAR data from May to September of 1996 for UK area, DAIS hyperspectral data and Landsat ETM+ for year 2000 for Spain area are used for this study. In addition, field data for the year 1996 were collected from farmers and for year 2000 were collected by field visits to both areas in the UK and Spain to generate the ground reference data set. The research was carried out in three main stages.The overall aim of this study is to assess the relative performance of four approaches to classification in remote sensing - the maximum likelihood, artificial neural net, decision tree and support vector machine methods and to examine factors which affect their performance in term of overall classification accuracy. Firstly, this research studies the behaviour of decision tree and support vector machine classifiers for land cover classification using ETM+ (UK) data. This stage discusses some factors affecting classification accuracy of a decision tree classifier, and also compares the performance of the decision tree with that of the maximum likelihood and neural network classifiers. The use of SVM requires the user to set the values of some parameters, such as type of kernel, kernel parameters, and multi-class methods as these parameters can significantly affect the accuracy of the resulting classification. This stage involves studying the effects of varying the various user defined parameters and noting their effect on classification accuracy. It is concluded that SVM perform far better than decision tree, maximum likelihood and neural network classifiers for this type of study. The second stage involves applying the decision tree, maximum likelihood and neural network classifiers to InSAR coherence and intensity data and evaluating the utility of this type of data for land cover classification studies. Finally, the last stage involves studying the response of SVMs, decision trees, maximum likelihood and neural classifier to different training data sizes, number of features, sampling plan, and the scale of the data used. The conclusion from the experiments presented in this stage is that the SVMs are unaffected by the Hughes phenomenon, and perform far better than the other classifiers in all cases. The performance of decision tree classifier based feature selection is found to be quite good in comparison with MNF transform. This study indicates that good classification performance depends on various parameters such as data type, scale of data, training sample size and type of classification method employed.
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Mackay, Katherine. "A comparative study of analysis methods in quantitative label free proteomics." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2015. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/2050359/.
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The large amounts of data generated by modern proteomics experiments necessitates the use of software pipelines to conduct the bulk of the post-processing. While many software packages (both commercial and open-source) are available to perform some or all of the necessary post-processing steps, it is usual for each research group to use only the instrumentation and software packages with which they are most familiar and/or which are available to analyse their unknown data. The intention of the studies presented within this thesis was to assess the correlation between the experimental results obtained when; - a single result dataset is obtained and post-processed in parallel using four separate software pipelines - a single sample is analysed on two different mass spectrometers and post-processed in parallel and; - when different identification thresholds are applied to a dataset prior to parallel quantitation of the resultant data sets Correlation between different mass spectrometry instruments was assessed and found to yield high r values, especially at the protein level, and was also found to improve following the application of abundance thresholds, however the result of applying score thresholds was unpredictable. The use of manual FDR thresholds prior to importing data into Progenesis LC-MS yielded interesting results, which suggest that a threshold of 1% peptide FDR and 1 or 2% protein FDR is most effective in terms of yielding accurate ratios while maintaining acceptable sensitivity. In addition, a consensus method is suggested to utilise the results from multiple software pipelines in order to increase sensitivity and reduce the FDR, through the use of the QPROT tool and manual post-processing.
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Noonan, Máire B. "Case and syntactic geometry." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=39372.
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The first part of this thesis addresses the following questions: where in the syntactic tree, and at what representational level is an NP Case-checked. To this end, it presents converging data from French, Welsh and Irish, which suggest (i) that Case-checking may be accomplished under a variety of functional projections (subject to parametric variation); and (ii) that Case positions are--at least partially--independent of the A/A$ sp prime$-distinction. It furthermore presents evidence from Irish and Welsh--VSO languages in which NPs typically raise to their Case position only at LF--that NPs are, under certain conditions, Case-checked at S-structure.Chapter 2 investigates word order and cliticisation in Standard French and Quebec French interrogatives and proposes a typology of interrogatives. Chapter 3 and 4 account for complementizer variation, pre-verbal particles and agreement patterns in Welsh and Irish under a Case-theoretic approach.
The second part of this thesis concerns the conditions on the availability of structural accusative Case. A theory of structural Case is proposed according to which accusativity is a configurational rather than a lexical property--i.e., resulting from syntactic geometry and not from lexical feature specifications on verbs. To this end, a comparison between the syntactic mapping of stative and perfective predicates in Irish and English is undertaken.
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Wynne, Terence Stewart. "The present perfect : a corpus-based investigation." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/3472.
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On the basis of an investigation of a corpus of 5.5 million words, this thesis analyses the use of the present perfect in modem American and British English. The investigation traces the development of the present perfect from its origins as a structure with adjectival meaning to its modern-day use as an aspectual verb form. A frequency analysis tests the claims of various writers that the present perfect is losing ground against the preterite and is less frequent in American than in British English. Neither claim is supported by the results of this analysis. A temporal specifier analysis investigates the co-occurrence of a large number of adverbials with the various verb forms. It finds that certain groups of specifiers which have hitherto been considered markers for the present perfect are in fact very poor indicators. Specifiers indicating a period of time lasting up to the moment of utterance, however, are found to be very reliable indicators. With one exception no significant difference was found between the British and American corpora in this respect. A functional-semantic analysis examines the various theories of the present perfect against the background of the results of the empirical investigation and finds them to be insufficient in one or more respects. In the final chapter the division between tense and aspect is shown to be artificial and a model of the present perfect is presented which is based on the idea of multilayered aspectual values. The model is centred on the unifying concept of phragmatisation - the closing of the event time-frame. According to this model, discourse topics involving the present perfect are perceived to describe an event which takes place in a time frame which is not closed to the deictic zero point at the moment of utterance. The final section describes which factors are operative in the phragmatisation or closing of event time frames.
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Williams-Elegbe, Sope. "Fighting corruption in procurement : a comparative analysis of disqualification measures." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13254/.
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Corruption has firmly taken centre stage in the development agenda of international organisations, developed and developing countries. One area in which corruption manifests is in public procurement and as a result, states have adopted various measures to prevent and curb corruption in public procurement. One such mechanism for dealing with procurement corruption is to disqualify corrupt suppliers from bidding on or otherwise obtaining government contracts. The disqualification of corrupt suppliers raises several issues, many of which are examined in this thesis. Implementing a disqualification mechanism in public procurement raises serious practical and conceptual difficulties, which are not always considered by legislative provisions on disqualification. Some of the problems that may arise from the use of disqualifications include determining whether a conviction for corruption ought to be a pre-requisite to disqualification, bearing in mind that corruption thrives in secret, resulting in a dearth of convictions. Another issue is determining how to balance the tension between granting adequate procedural safeguards to a supplier in disqualification proceedings and not delaying the procurement process. A further issue is determining the scope of the disqualification in the sense of determining whether it applies to firms, natural persons, subcontractors, subsidiaries or other persons related to the corrupt firm and whether disqualification will lead to the termination of existing contracts. These issues and the others considered by this thesis illustrate the limits to the efficacy of the disqualification mechanism in fighting procurement corruption. The thesis compares and contrasts the legal, practical and institutional approaches to the implementation of the disqualification mechanism in the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Republic of South Africa and the World Bank. The thesis examines how these jurisdictions have implemented a disqualification mechanism and whether their approaches may be regarded as appropriate.
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Rosenblatt, Paulo. "General anti-avoidance rules for major developing countries: a comparative taxation approach." Thesis, University of London, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.603581.
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A GAAR is controversial: it confers great powers on tax officials but has not provided a complete solution to tax avoidance. Nevertheless, the idea of a GAAR has spread worldwide. Tax avoidance is not exclusive to advanced economies but also harmful to developing countries. International Financial Institutions have recently recommended a GAAR 'menu or tool kit' for developing countries. However, a number of differences between developed and developing countries suggest they should have different approaches in this field. There has been little research on adequate tax reforms for these countries. This thesis addresses this lacuna by discussing a workable GAAR for major developing countries. It considers the lessons from selected countries and what can be adapted to developing countries' circumstances. Comparative taxation is a useful tool to identify similarities and differences between systems, to provide a framework for comparing potential solutions to common policy issues and to promote law reform. The research acknowledges the limits to comparative taxation and the cautions needed in legal transplants. The design analysis focuses on the primary common elements of GAARs - scheme or arrangement, tax benefit and purpose - and secondary, nonessential tests - reasonableness, artificiality, abnormality, substance-over-form, economic reality, business purpose, non-tax purpose and abuse of law. The analysis is based on statutory provisions, discussion papers and case law mainly. Given that discretion is an unavoidable feature of GAARs, the thesis discusses how this power can be limited to provide a balance between protecting the tax base and securing legitimate tax planning. This thesis assumes that a GAAR may bring uncertainty to any system. Nonetheless, the hypothesis is that a narrowly drafted GAAR containing clear criteria and essential taxpayers' safeguards- although this may restrict its scope of generalitycan be an appropriate measure for developing countries.
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Cavicchia, Giorgia. "Involvement and detachment in David Cameron and Ed Miliband’s political discourse. An analysis of deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ in UK 2015 General Election news interviews." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2016. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/10799/.
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The goal of my study is to investigate the relationship between selected deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ and the involvement/detachment dichotomy in a sample of television news interviews. I focus on the use of personal pronouns in political discourse. Drawing upon Caffi’s (2007) classification of mitigating devices into bushes, hedges and shields, I focus on deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’: I examine the way a selection of ‘I’-related deictic shields is employed in a collection of news interviews broadcast during the electoral campaign prior to the UK 2015 General Election. My purpose is to uncover the frequencies of each of the linguistic items selected and the pragmatic functions of those linguistic items in the involvement/detachment dichotomy.
The research is structured as follows. Chapter 1 provides an account of previous studies on the three main areas of research: speech event analysis, institutional interaction and the news interview, and the UK 2015 General Election television programmes. Chapter 2 is centred on the involvement/detachment dichotomy: I provide an overview of nonlinguistic and linguistic features of involvement and detachment at all levels of sentence structure. Chapter 3 contains a detailed account of the data collection and data analysis process. Chapter 4 provides an accurate description of results in three steps: quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis and discussion of the pragmatic functions of the selected linguistic features of involvement and detachment. Chapter 5 includes a brief summary of the investigation, reviews the main findings, and indicates limitations of the study and possible inputs for further research. The results of the analysis confirm that, while some of the linguistic items examined point toward involvement, others have a detaching effect. I therefore conclude that deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ permit the realisation of the involvement/detachment dichotomy in the speech genre of the news interview.
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Sanfilippo, Antonio. "Grammatical relations, thematic roles and verb semantics." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6585.
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Grammatical relations have always constituted a primary focus of attention in the study of language. Within the last three decades, the topicality of this trend has increasingly been determined by the quest for a universal characterization of the language faculty which has shaped the goals and directives of most current works in theoretical linguistics. Although the realization patterns and syntactic functionality of grammatical relations are subject to cross-linguistic variation, studies in comparative grammar have provided suggestive evidence that the range of variation found can often be contained within the limits fixed by a discrete set of parameters. The investigation of these parameters has broached the possibility of a universal specification of the nature of grammatical relations. This thesis proposes that such a specification should be achieved by establishing regularities in the syntax-semantics interface within a constraint-based approach to linguistic analysis that integrates a precise computational interpretation. In keeping with this objective, a unification-based categorial grammar framework is developed which incorporates the semantic insights of a Neo-Davidsonian approach to verb semantics and predicate-argument combination, where thematic roles are defined as clusters of entailments of verb meanings. This framework is extended with an integrated approach to argument selection and selection change. Properties of the resulting system are demonstrated with respect to a variety of natural language phenomena concerning grammatical function changing, unaccusativity and clitic dislocation.
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Uzoechi, Kenneth. "Corporate personality and abuses : a comparative analysis of UK and Nigeria laws." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/59929/.
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This thesis provides a comparative analysis of the problems of fraud and the abuse of the corporate form under UK and Nigerian company laws. The twin doctrines of separate legal personality and limited liability for members shield shareholders and directors from personal liability for the debts of the company with far reaching implications for creditors and wider society. Although this position is not immutable as demonstrated in Salomon v Salomon, an analysis of case law and statute within the general rubric of ‘lifting the veil’ or ‘piercing the veil’ in the two jurisdictions reveals that veil piercing approaches have for several reasons remained fundamentally flawed. There is no coherent principle upon which the courts may find exceptional circumstances to impose liability on shareholders and directors. Veil piercing approaches have been premised on loss allocation analysis and used only as a means to discard limited liability. No effort has been made to deny controlling shareholders and directors the benefits derived from fraud, an omission that is detrimental to the interest of creditors and thus demonstrates the need for a new approach. This thesis therefore argues that gains made by fraudulent shareholders or directors constitute an unjustified enrichment which must be disgorged for distribution to creditors. To this end, the thesis proposes a ‘responsible corporate personality model’ which gives the creditors wider rights of action to initiate claims against corporate controllers to deny or prevent wrongful benefits or proceeds of unjust enrichment when the company is insolvent or approaching insolvency. The model addresses questions such as the role of constructive trust in combating fraud, tracing, fraudulent transfer of company’s assets to third parties and obstacles imposed by the requirement of fiduciary relationship. It supports the approach to unjust enrichment, suggesting lessons for both the UK and Nigeria in order to preserve equity and prevent improper conduct of corporate controllers. A key argument is that the responsible corporate model can address certain socio-economic peculiarities of Nigeria and similar developing countries.