On L2 grammar and processing: the case of oblique relative clauses and the Null-Prep phenomenon

This dissertation investigates the acquisition of oblique relative clauses in L2 Spanish by English and Moroccan Arabic speakers in order to understand the role of previous linguistic knowledge and its interaction with Universal Grammar on the one hand, and the relationship between grammatical knowledge and its use in real-time, on the other hand. Three types of tasks were employed: an oral production task, an on-line self-paced grammaticality judgment task, and an on-line self-paced reading comprehension task. Results indicated that the acquisition of oblique relative clauses in Spanish is a problematic area for second language learners of intermediate proficiency in the language, regardless of their native language. In particular, this study has showed that, even when the learners’ native language shares the main properties of the L2, i.e., fronting of the obligatory preposition (Pied-Piping), there is still room for divergence, especially in production and timed grammatical intuitions. On the other hand, reaction time data have shown that L2 learners can and do converge at the level of sentence processing, showing exactly the same real-time effects for oblique relative clauses that native speakers had. Processing results demonstrated that native and non-native speakers alike are able to apply universal processing principles such as the Minimal Chain Principle (De Vincenzi, 1991) even when the L2 learners still have incomplete grammatical representations, a result that contradicts some of the predictions of the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (Clahsen & Felser, 2006). Results further suggest that the L2 processing and comprehension domains may be able to access some type of information that it is not yet available to other grammatical modules, probably because transfer of certain L1 properties occurs asymmetrically across linguistic domains. In addition, this study also explored the Null-Prep phenomenon in L2 Spanish, and proposed that Null-Prep is an interlanguage stage, fully available and accounted within UG, which intermediate L2 as well as first language learners go through in the development of pied-piping oblique relative clauses. It is hypothesized that this intermediate stage is the result of optionality of the obligatory preposition in the derivation, when it is not crucial for the meaning of the sentence, and when the DP is going to be in an A-bar position, so it can get default case. This optionality can be predicted by the Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2009c) if we consider that these prepositions are some sort of functional morphology. This study contributes to the field of SLA and L2 processing in various ways. First, it demonstrates that the grammatical representations may be dissociated from grammatical processing in the sense that L2 learners, unlike native speakers, can present unexpected asymmetries such as a convergent processing but divergent grammatical intuitions or production. This conclusion is only possible under the assumption of a modular language system. Finally, it contributes to the general debate of generative SLA since in argues for a fully UG-constrained interlanguage grammar.

Superconducting Transition-Edge Sensor Physics

Despite record-setting performance demonstrated by superconducting Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) and growing utilization of the technology, a theoretical model of the physics governing TES devices superconducting phase transition has proven elusive. Earlier attempts to describe TESs assumed them to be uniform superconductors. Sadleir et al. 2010 shows that TESs are weak links and that the superconducting order parameter strength has significant spatial variation. Measurements are presented of the temperature T and magnetic field B dependence of the critical current Ic measured over 7 orders of magnitude on square Mo/Au bilayers ranging in length from 8 to 290 microns. We find our measurements have a natural explanation in terms of a spatially varying order parameter that is enhanced in proximity to the higher transition temperature superconducting leads (the longitudinal proximity effect) and suppressed in proximity to the added normal metal structures (the lateral inverse proximity effect). These in-plane proximity effects and scaling relations are observed over unprecedentedly long lengths (in excess of 1000 times the mean free path) and explained in terms of a Ginzburg-Landau model. Our low temperature Ic(B) measurements are found to agree with a general derivation of a superconducting strip with an edge or geometric barrier to vortex entry and we also derive two conditions that lead to Ic rectification. At high temperatures the Ic(B) exhibits distinct Josephson effect behavior over long length scales and following functional dependences not previously reported. We also investigate how film stress changes the transition, explain some transition features in terms of a nonequilibrium superconductivity effect, and show that our measurements of the resistive transition are not consistent with a percolating resistor network model.

Formal and philological inquiries into the nature of interrogatives, indefinites, disjunction, and focus in Sinhala and other languages

In this thesis I examine a variety of linguistic elements which involve ``alternative'' semantic values---a class arguably including focus, interrogatives, indefinites, and disjunctions---and the connections between these elements. This study focusses on the analysis of such elements in Sinhala, with comparison to Malayalam, Tlingit, and Japanese. The central part of the study concerns the proper syntactic and semantic analysis of Q[uestion]-particles (including Sinhala "da", Malayalam "-oo", Japanese "ka"), which, in many languages, appear not only in interrogatives, but also in the formation of indefinites, disjunctions, and relative clauses. This set of contexts is syntactically-heterogeneous, and so syntax does not offer an explanation for the appearance of Q-particles in this particular set of environments. I propose that these contexts can be united in terms of semantics, as all involving some element which denotes a set of ``alternatives''. Both wh-words and disjunctions can be analysed as creating Hamblin-type sets of ``alternatives''. Q-particles can be treated as uniformly denoting variables over choice functions which apply to the aforementioned Hamblin-type sets, thus ``restoring'' the derivation to normal Montagovian semantics. The treatment of Q-particles as uniformly denoting variables over choice functions provides an explanation for why these particles appear in just this set of contexts: they all include an element with Hamblin-type semantics. However, we also find variation in the use of Q-particles; including, in some languages, the appearance of multiple morphologically-distinct Q-particles in different syntactic contexts. Such variation can be handled largely by positing that Q-particles may vary in their formal syntactic feature specifications, determining which syntactic contexts they are licensed in. The unified analysis of Q-particles as denoting variables over choice functions also raises various questions about the proper analysis of interrogatives, indefinites, and disjunctions, including issues concerning the nature of the semantics of wh-words and the syntactic structure of disjunction. As well, I observe that indefinites involving Q-particles have a crosslinguistic tendency to be epistemic indefinites, i.e. indefinites which explicitly signal ignorance of details regarding who or what satisfies the existential claim. I provide an account of such indefinites which draws on the analysis of Q-particles as variables over choice functions. These pragmatic ``signals of ignorance'' (which I argue to be presuppositions) also have a further role to play in determining the distribution of Q-particles in disjunctions. The final section of this study investigates the historical development of focus constructions and Q-particles in Sinhala. This diachronic study allows us not only to observe the origin and development of such elements, but also serves to delimit the range of possible synchronic analyses, thus providing us with further insights into the formal syntactic and semantic properties of Q-particles. This study highlights both the importance of considering various components of the grammar (e.g. syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology) and the use of philology in developing plausible formal analyses of complex linguistic phenomena such as the crosslinguistic distribution of Q-particles.