Morphology

Turner (1908) The workers of Vespa carolina resemble in coloration the males. A correction

by Anthony Daglio

The analysis of gesture: Establishing a set of parameters

by Nicla Rossini

In Camurri, A.-Volpe, G. (Eds) Gesture-Based Communication in Human-Computer Interaction. 5th International Gesture Workshop, GW 2003, Genova, Italy, April 2003. Selected Revised Papers. Pp. 124-131. Springer-Verlag: Berlin Heidelberg New York.

Studying gesture has always implied the application of different methods concerning the selection of suitable... more Studying gesture has always implied the application of different methods concerning the selection of suitable parameters for gesture. Several solutions to this problem have been proposed by scholars over the years. These contributions will be briefly reviewed and discussed with the aim of retrieving a common method for the analysis and definition of gesture.

Sociolinguistics in Gesture: How about the Mano a Borsa?

by Nicla Rossini

Intercultural Communication Studies, XIII, 3: 144-154. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Communication (CSF 2003).

Phrasal verbs or words? Towards the analysis of gesture and prosody as indexes of lexicalisation

by Nicla Rossini

The Influence of Typological Features on Stylometric Text Classification

by Marcin Opacki

draft only

This work aims to establish whether the features of morphological typology that a particular language exhibits affect... more This work aims to establish whether the features of morphological typology that a particular language exhibits affect parameters such as accuracy and precision is stylometric measurements conducted for the purpose of text classification. This work provides insights for such fields as plagiarism detection, authorship attribution, automatic essay scoring, and sentiment classification.

Kurumada, C. and Jaeger, T.F. 2012. Communicatively efficient language production and case-marker omission in Japanese. The 34th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci12). Sapporo, Japan. July, 2012.

by T. Florian Jaeger

Feel free to cite. For page numbers, pls see the CogSci Proceedings webpage.

Recent proposals hold that language production reflects speakers bias to achieve efficient information transmission.... more Recent proposals hold that language production reflects speakers bias to achieve efficient information transmission. Speakers tend to provide more linguistic signal for information that is difficult to recover while omitting or reducing contextually inferable elements. However, previous findings in support of this hypothesis have been claimed to be compatible with alternative explanations in terms of production difficulty, therefore not requiring reference to communicative efficiency. We present two recall-production experiments on Japanese speakers’ preference in optional object case-marking that test the predictions of communicative efficiency accounts, while ruling out alternative explanations in terms of production difficulty. We find that speakers of Japanese are more likely to mark objects with case, if the referential properties of the object (Experiment 1) or the combination of subject, object, and verb (Experiment 2) bias against the intended assignment of grammatical functions. Together the experiments provide evidence that speakers prefer to provide case-marking if the intended interpretation of the sentence is unexpected or implausible.

Analysis of variability in /Protichnites/ morphology and a standardized method of identification

by Matt Burton-Kelly

Presented at the Ichnological Applications to Sedimentological and Sequence Stratigraphic Problems, SEPM Research Conference, May 20 - 26, 2007, Price, Utah, USA.

First paragraph:
Morphological characters of described specimens of the ichnogenus _Protichnites_ Owen, 1852, (a... more First paragraph:
Morphological characters of described specimens of the ichnogenus _Protichnites_ Owen, 1852, (a probable arthropod trace fossil) in the literature were identified. For this study, _Protichnites_ was defined as a trackway possessing the following characteristics: paired imprints across the midline, medial structure (groove(s) or ridge(s)), and a countable (i.e., generally unchanging) number of tracks in each repeating trackset. This definition removes certain described specimens and ichnospecies of _Protichnites_ from that ichnogenus (and from this study), due mainly to a lack of ‘countable’ tracks per set, something that Owen (1852) considered an important aspect of these trackways when he named _P. septemnotatus_ (“seven-marked”), _P. octonotatus_ (“eight-marked”) and _P. multinotatus_ (“many-marked”). Specimens that possess this morphology but have not been identified as _Protichnites_ were not included in this study. Many specimens from the literature have been identified only to the level of ichnogenus.

Kapatsinski, Vsevolod. 2012. When and why we (fail to) extend morphophonological alternations: Towards a usage-based Harmonic Grammar. Ms. U of Oregon.

by Vsevolod Kapatsinski

Kapatsinski, Vsevolod. 2012. Minding gaps or seeking bumps in learning phonotactics? Poster presented at LSA Annual Meeting.

by Vsevolod Kapatsinski

Kapatsinski, Vsevolod. 2009. The architecture of grammar in artificial grammar learning: Formal biases in the acquisition of morphophonology and the nature of the learning task. Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University.

by Vsevolod Kapatsinski

The chimpanzee nest quantified: morphology and ecology of arboreal sleeping platforms within the dry habitat site of Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda

by David Samson

Published in Primates

The nightly construction of a sleeping platform
(SP) or ‘‘nest’’ is widely regarded as a universal behaviormore The nightly construction of a sleeping platform
(SP) or ‘‘nest’’ is widely regarded as a universal behavior
among great apes, yet SP structural morphology has been
incompletely quantified to date. This is in part due to the
inherent difficulties of gathering empirical data on arboreally
sited SPs. I gathered quantitative structural data on
SPs (n = 65) at the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve from
May to June 2008 and from August 2010 to January 2011. I
measured SP length (semi-major axis length), width (semiminor
axis length), radii (length from the surface center to
the rim edge 45 from the axis), depth (width of the concavity
from the surface center to the parallel rim), and
thickness (ventral center to the dorsal underside of the SP).
SP complexity was defined with a scored index. SP complexity
was found to be correlated with SP circumference,
surface area, mass, proportion of soft leafy material to hard
woody material, number of frame support branches used in
its construction, and other measures that are argued to
index ‘‘comfort.’’ In addition, the height of the tree canopy
above the SP was negatively correlated with SP complexity.
Greater complexity (and therefore stability) is argued
to maintain SP integrity, stability and restraint in the face
of greater wind speeds, thereby reducing the probability of
falls. Given the observation that males site SPs lower
than females (Fruth and Hohmann, Ethology 94:113–126,
1994; Brownlow et al., Am J Primatol 55:49–55, 2001),
and that SP diameters were greater for SPs sited low in the
canopy at Semliki, it is inferred that more massive males
benefit from lower climbing expenses and greater stability.
These data support Baldwin and colleagues’ (Primates
22:474–486, 1981) hypothesis that the principal advantage
of SPs over open-branch sleeping sites is the greater stability
required by large-bodied great apes.

On the evolution of raptorial legs--an insect example (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Phymatinae)

by Dimitri Forero

Co-authored with: CHRISTIANE WEIRAUCH, DAWID JACOBS
Published in: Cladistics 27: 138-149 (2011)

The presence of chelate and subchelate fore legs in Phymatinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), or ambush bugs, provides a... more The presence of chelate and subchelate fore legs in Phymatinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), or ambush bugs, provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of different types of raptorial legs in a closely related group of arthropods. Themonocorini have simple, possibly raptorial legs, Phymatini and Macrocephalini distinct subchelate fore legs, and the charismatic Carcinocorini are the only insects with a chelate fore leg apart from female dryinid Chysidoidea (Hymenoptera). Relationships between the four phymatine tribes are here analyzed in a cladistic framework thus permitting testable hypotheses on the evolution of raptorial legs. The presented analysis of phymatine tribal level relationships is based on a dataset comprising 11 species of Phymatinae and 54 nonphymatine Reduviidae and Heteroptera. The molecular data set consists of 3500 MAFFT aligned bases of 16S, 28S D2–D3, and 18S ribosomal genes. Parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses resulted in identical topologies for the ingroup with the relationships Themonocorini + (Phymatini + (Carcinocorini + Macrocephalini)) receiving high support values. Eleven morphological characters, eight of them derived from fore leg morphology, were optimized on the parsimony analysis. These optimizations indicate that the ancestral ambush bug had a simple raptorial leg; that size reduction of the tarsus, enlargement of the femur, curvature of the fore tibia, armature of tibia and femur with rows of tiny tubercles that allow for gripping of a prey insect, and the large process on the ventral surface of the femur arose in the common ancestor of Carcinocorini + Macrocephalini + Phymatini. The chelate leg in Carcinocorini is likely derived from a subchelate precursor similar to the one seen in recent Macrocephalini and may have evolved through elongation of the ventral, proximal portion of the fore femur and modification of the median process to form part of the digitus fixus.

Comparative genitalic morphology in the New World resin bugs Apiomerini (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae)

by Dimitri Forero

Co-authored with: CHRISTIANE WEIRAUCH
In press: Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 59

Apiomerini, also called New World resin bugs, are a largely Neotropical tribe of the assassin bug subfamily... more Apiomerini, also called New World resin bugs, are a largely Neotropical tribe of the assassin bug subfamily Harpactorinae, whose members show unique predation and maternal care behaviors. Species in this group collect resins to improve prey capture, and species within Apiomerus also coat their eggs with the accumulated resin to prevent egg predation and desiccation. Current understanding of phylogenetic relationships within the tribe is limited, in part due to the lack of comprehensive comparative morphological studies that would allow for cladistic analyses. Here, the male and female ectodermal genitalic structures are documented for all but one of the 12 extant genera of Apiomerini, including 12 species of the speciose genus Apiomerus. Descriptions and digital micrographs are provided for the pygophore, parameres, and phallus of the male, and for the tergite 8, syntergite 9/10, gonocoxae, gonapophyses, gonoplac, and bursa copulatrix of the female. Primary homologs are identified and their variation among taxa discussed. The wealth of morphological character information uncovered in this comparative analysis will greatly facilitate future cladistic analyses of Apiomerini. Our study also represents one of the first detailed and well-illustrated comparative studies of genitalic features at the tribal level in Reduviidae. Functional morphology of apiomerine genitalia is discussed where appropriate.

Ergentjes

by Bert Cappelle

To appear in the popularizing journal "Over Taal"

Italian compounds

by Francesca Masini

2012. Published in "Probus" 24 (1), 61-91 [Special issue on “Romance compounds” edited by Sergio Scalise & Francesca Masini]. Co-authored with Sergio Scalise.

Italian compounds

by Francesca Masini

2012. Published in "Probus" 24 (1), 61-91 [Special issue on “Romance compounds” edited by Sergio Scalise & Francesca Masini]. Co-authored with Sergio Scalise.

Agreement morphology: the case of Rgyalrongic and Kiranti

by Guillaume Jacques

2012, Language and linguistics 13.1:83-116

Mastropavlou, M. (2008). Grammatical gender in aphasia: Evidence from Greek. Oral presentation at the 2nd Conference on Language Disorders in Greek. Patras, 31 May - 1 June 2008.

by Maria Mastropavlou

Formation and Ossification of Limb Elements in Trachemys scripta and a Discussion of Autopodial Elements in Turtles

by Daniel Portik

Neuman 2009. L'influence de l'écriture sur la langue (Ph.D. dissertation, Sorbonne Nouvelle)

by Yishai Neuman

Ph.D. in linguistics obtained from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris III) in December 2009.

The study of writing and language as semiotic codes in contact should have logically followed from the Saussurian... more The study of writing and language as semiotic codes in contact should have logically followed from the Saussurian statement: "Language and writing are two distinct systems of
signs". On the same theoretical basis as that of contact linguistics, the contact between language and writing might be conducive to mutual semiotic transfer. The acquisition of writing induces a radical cognitive change and the emergence of writing within a linguistic community modifies its organisation. The greater physical force of the visual stimulus as against aural stimulus and the high prestige gained by the mastery of writing are the cognitive and social factors that favour semiotic transfer from writing to language.
With regard to lexicon, a writing tradition accompanied by an orthoepy (rules of reading aloud) provides the language with words from afar in place and in time, like learned words from classical tongues and graphic loanwords between languages whose linguistic communities are not in direct contact. Graphemic words with no linguistic provenance are also vernacularised, like the lexicalisation of abbreviations. The vernacularisation of written elements enriches language. A particularly extreme case of vernacularised written sources is
that of the emergence of spoken Modern Hebrew – literary non vernacular Hebrew of early 20th century being its main source.
On the phonological level, orthoepy may modify phonology, as can be shown by the emergence of consonantal clusters in French and of /θ/ in author in English. On the semantic level, writing may be the source of the reorganisation of the signifiés based on spelling; numerous figures of speech are inspired by the attributes of writing.

Keywords:
Writing, orthoepy, semiotic transfer, lexical enrichment, morphophonology, linguistic change

http://www.sudoc.fr/147369126