Tense, aspect and modality in first and second language

Time after time… and aspect and mood. Over the last twenty five years, the study of time, aspect and - to a lesser extent - mood acquisition has enjoyed increasing popularity and a constant widening of its scope. In such a teeming field, what can be the contribution of this book? We believe that it is unique in several respects. First, this volume encompasses studies from different theoretical frameworks: functionalism vs generativism or function-based vs form-based approaches. It also brings together various sub-fields (first and second language acquisition, child and adult acquisition, bilingualism) that tend to evolve in parallel rather than learn from each other. A further originality is that it focuses on a wide range of typologically different languages, and features less studied languages such as Korean and Bulgarian. Finally, the book gathers some well-established scholars, young researchers, and even research students, in a rich inter-generational exchange, that ensures the survival but also the renewal and the refreshment of the discipline. The book at a glance The first part of the volume is devoted to the study of child language acquisition in monolingual, impaired and bilingual acquisition, while the second part focuses on adult learners. In this section, we will provide an overview of each chapter. The first study by Aviya Hacohen explores the acquisition of compositional telicity in Hebrew L1. Her psycholinguistic approach contributes valuable data to refine theoretical accounts. Through an innovating methodology, she gathers information from adults and children on the influence of definiteness, number, and the mass vs countable distinction on the constitution of a telic interpretation of the verb phrase. She notices that the notion of definiteness is mastered by children as young as 10, while the mass/count distinction does not appear before 10;7. However, this does not entail an adult-like use of telicity. She therefore concludes that beyond definiteness and noun type, pragmatics may play an important role in the derivation of Hebrew compositional telicity. For the second chapter we move from a Semitic language to a Slavic one. Milena Kuehnast focuses on the acquisition of negative imperatives in Bulgarian, a form that presents the specificity of being grammatical only with the imperfective form of the verb. The study examines how 40 Bulgarian children distributed in two age-groups (15 between 2;11-3;11, and 25 between 4;00 and 5;00) develop with respect to the acquisition of imperfective viewpoints, and the use of imperfective morphology. It shows an evolution in the recourse to expression of force in the use of negative imperatives, as well as the influence of morphological complexity on the successful production of forms. With Yi-An Lin’s study, we concentrate both on another type of informant and of framework. Indeed, he studies the production of children suffering from Specific Language Impairment (SLI), a developmental language disorder the causes of which exclude cognitive impairment, psycho-emotional disturbance, and motor-articulatory disorders. Using the Leonard corpus in CLAN, Lin aims to test two competing accounts of SLI (the Agreement and Tense Omission Model [ATOM] and his own Phonetic Form Deficit Model [PFDM]) that conflicts on the role attributed to spellout in the impairment. Spellout is the point at which the Computational System for Human Language (CHL) passes over the most recently derived part of the derivation to the interface components, Phonetic Form (PF) and Logical Form (LF). ATOM claims that SLI sufferers have a deficit in their syntactic representation while PFDM suggests that the problem only occurs at the spellout level. After studying the corpus from the point of view of tense / agreement marking, case marking, argument-movement and auxiliary inversion, Lin finds further support for his model. Olga Gupol, Susan Rohstein and Sharon Armon-Lotem’s chapter offers a welcome bridge between child language acquisition and multilingualism. Their study explores the influence of intensive exposure to L2 Hebrew on the development of L1 Russian tense and aspect morphology through an elicited narrative. Their informants are 40 Russian-Hebrew sequential bilingual children distributed in two age groups 4;0 – 4;11 and 7;0 - 8;0. They come to the conclusion that bilingual children anchor their narratives in perfective like monolinguals. However, while aware of grammatical aspect, bilinguals lack the full form-function mapping and tend to overgeneralize the imperfective on the principles of simplicity (as imperfective are the least morphologically marked forms), universality (as it covers more functions) and interference. Rafael Salaberry opens the second section on foreign language learners. In his contribution, he reflects on the difficulty L2 learners of Spanish encounter when it comes to distinguishing between iterativity (conveyed with the use of the preterite) and habituality (expressed through the imperfect). He examines in turn the theoretical views that see, on the one hand, habituality as part of grammatical knowledge and iterativity as pragmatic knowledge, and on the other hand both habituality and iterativity as grammatical knowledge. He comes to the conclusion that the use of preterite as a default past tense marker may explain the impoverished system of aspectual distinctions, not only at beginners but also at advanced levels, which may indicate that the system is differentially represented among L1 and L2 speakers. Acquiring the vast array of functions conveyed by a form is therefore no mean feat, as confirmed by the next study. Based on the prototype theory, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig’s chapter focuses on the development of the progressive in L2 English. It opens with an overview of the functions of the progressive in English. Then, a review of acquisition research on the progressive in English and other languages is provided. The bulk of the chapter reports on a longitudinal study of 16 learners of L2 English and shows how their use of the progressive expands from the prototypical uses of process and continuousness to the less prototypical uses of repetition and future. The study concludes that the progressive spreads in interlanguage in accordance with prototype accounts. However, it suggests additional stages, not predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis, in the development from activities and accomplishments at least for the meaning of repeatedness. A similar theoretical framework is adopted in the following chapter, but it deals with a lesser studied language. Hyun-Jin Kim revisits the claims of the Aspect Hypothesis in relation to the acquisition of L2 Korean by two L1 English learners. Inspired by studies on L2 Japanese, she focuses on the emergence and spread of the past / perfective marker ¬–ess- and the progressive – ko iss- in the interlanguage of her informants throughout their third and fourth semesters of study. The data collected through six sessions of conversational interviews and picture description tasks seem to support the Aspect Hypothesis. Indeed learners show a strong association between past tense and accomplishments / achievements at the start and a gradual extension to other types; a limited use of past / perfective marker with states and an affinity of progressive with activities / accomplishments and later achievements. In addition, - ko iss– moves from progressive to resultative in the specific category of Korean verbs meaning wear / carry. While the previous contributions focus on function, Evgeniya Sergeeva and Jean-Pierre Chevrot’s is interested in form. The authors explore the acquisition of verbal morphology in L2 French by 30 instructed native speakers of Russian distributed in a low and high levels. They use an elicitation task for verbs with different models of stem alternation and study how token frequency and base forms influence stem selection. The analysis shows that frequency affects correct production, especially among learners with high proficiency. As for substitution errors, it appears that forms with a simple structure are systematically more frequent than the target form they replace. When a complex form serves as a substitute, it is more frequent only when it is replacing another complex form. As regards the use of base forms, the 3rd person singular of the present – and to some extent the infinitive – play this role in the corpus. The authors therefore conclude that the processing of surface forms can be influenced positively or negatively by the frequency of the target forms and of other competing stems, and by the proximity of the target stem to a base form. Finally, Martin Howard’s contribution takes up the challenge of focusing on the poorer relation of the TAM system. On the basis of L2 French data obtained through sociolinguistic interviews, he studies the expression of futurity, conditional and subjunctive in three groups of university learners with classroom teaching only (two or three years of university teaching) or with a mixture of classroom teaching and naturalistic exposure (2 years at University + 1 year abroad). An analysis of relative frequencies leads him to suggest a continuum of use going from futurate present to conditional with past hypothetic conditional clauses in si, which needs to be confirmed by further studies. Acknowledgements The present volume was inspired by the conference Acquisition of Tense – Aspect – Mood in First and Second Language held on 9th and 10th February 2008 at Aston University (Birmingham, UK) where over 40 delegates from four continents and over a dozen countries met for lively and enjoyable discussions. This collection of papers was double peer-reviewed by an international scientific committee made of Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig (Indiana University), Christine Bozier (Lund Universitet), Alex Housen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Martin Howard (University College Cork), Florence Myles (Newcastle University), Urszula Paprocka (Catholic University of Lublin), †Clive Perdue (Université Paris 8), Michel Pierrard (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Rafael Salaberry (University of Texas at Austin), Suzanne Schlyter (Lund Universitet), Richard Towell (Salford University), and Daniel Véronique (Université d’Aix-en-Provence). We are very much indebted to that scientific committee for their insightful input at each step of the project. We are also thankful for the financial support of the Association for French Language Studies through its workshop grant, and to the Aston Modern Languages Research Foundation for funding the proofreading of the manuscript.

Fabrication of high aspect ratio microfluidic devices using direct FS ablation

We present a single stage direct fs ablation results which show that it is possible to make high quality and high aspect ratio devices in a single stage process using a CAD optimised approach.

Effect of aspect ratio on thermal convection in open and closed systems

Internally heated fluids are found across the nuclear fuel cycle. In certain situations the motion of the fluid is driven by the decay heat (i.e. corium melt pools in severe accidents, the shutdown of liquid metal reactors, molten salt and the passive control of light water reactors) as well as normal operation (i.e. intermediate waste storage and generation IV reactor designs). This can in the long-term affect reactor vessel integrity or lead to localized hot spots and accumulation of solid wastes that may prompt local increases in activity. Two approaches to the modeling of internally heated convection are presented here. These are based on numerical analysis using codes developed in-house and simulations using widely available computational fluid dynamics solvers. Open and closed fluid layers at around the transition between conduction and convection of various aspect ratios are considered. We determine optimum domain aspect ratio (1:7:7 up to 1:24:24 for open systems and 5:5:1, 1:10:10 and 1:20:20 for closed systems), mesh resolutions and turbulence models required to accurately and efficiently capture the convection structures that evolve when perturbing the conductive state of the fluid layer. Note that the open and closed fluid layers we study here are bounded by a conducting surface over an insulating surface. Conclusions will be drawn on the influence of the periodic boundary conditions on the flow patterns observed. We have also examined the stability of the nonlinear solutions that we found with the aim of identifying the bifurcation sequence of these solutions en route to turbulence.

An aspect-oriented and model-driven approach for managing dynamic variability

Constructing and executing distributed systems that can adapt to their operating context in order to sustain provided services and the service qualities are complex tasks. Managing adaptation of multiple, interacting services is particularly difficult since these services tend to be distributed across the system, interdependent and sometimes tangled with other services. Furthermore, the exponential growth of the number of potential system configurations derived from the variabilities of each service need to be handled. Current practices of writing low-level reconfiguration scripts as part of the system code to handle run time adaptation are both error prone and time consuming and make adaptive systems difficult to validate and evolve. In this paper, we propose to combine model driven and aspect oriented techniques to better cope with the complexities of adaptive systems construction and execution, and to handle the problem of exponential growth of the number of possible configurations. Combining these techniques allows us to use high level domain abstractions, simplify the representation of variants and limit the problem pertaining to the combinatorial explosion of possible configurations. In our approach we also use models at runtime to generate the adaptation logic by comparing the current configuration of the system to a composed model representing the configuration we want to reach. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Fabrication of high aspect ratio microfluidic devices using direct FS ablation

We present a single stage direct fs ablation results which show that it is possible to make high quality and high aspect ratio devices in a single stage process using a CAD optimised approach.

Secret commissions:unauthorised profits

Considers ability of beneficiaries to trace into unauthorised profits following ruling in Sinclair v Versaille and other recent case law.

Bifurcation study for a vertical channel with constant flux and large aspect ratio

Using suitable coupled Navier-Stokes Equations for an incompressible Newtonian fluid we investigate the linear and non-linear steady state solutions for both a homogeneously and a laterally heated fluid with finite Prandtl Number (Pr=7) in the vertical orientation of the channel. Both models are studied within the Large Aspect Ratio narrow-gap and under constant flux conditions with the channel closed. We use direct numerics to identify the linear stability criterion in parametric terms as a function of Grashof Number (Gr) and streamwise infinitesimal perturbation wavenumber (making use of the generalised Squire’s Theorem). We find higher harmonic solutions at lower wavenumbers with a resonance of 1:3exist, for both of the heating models considered. We proceed to identify 2D secondary steady state solutions, which bifurcate from the laminar state. Our studies show that 2D solutions are found not to exist in certain regions of the pure manifold, where we find that 1:3 resonant mode 2D solutions exist, for low wavenumber perturbations. For the homogeneously heated fluid, we notice a jump phenomenon existing between the pure and resonant mode secondary solutions for very specific wavenumbers .We attempt to verify whether mixed mode solutions are present for this model by considering the laterally heated model with the same geometry. We find mixed mode solutions for the laterally heated model showing that a bridge exists between the pure and 1:3 resonant mode 2D solutions, of which some are stationary and some travelling. Further, we show that for the homogeneously heated fluid that the 2D solutions bifurcate in hopf bifurcations and there exists a manifold where the 2D solutions are stable to Eckhaus criterion, within this manifold we proceed to identify 3D tertiary solutions and find that the stability for said 3D bifurcations is not phase locked to the 2D state. For the homogeneously heated model we identify a closed loop within the neutral stability curve for higher perturbation wavenumubers and analyse the nature of the multiple 2D bifurcations around this loop for identical wavenumber and find that a temperature inversion occurs within this loop. We conclude that for a homogeneously heated fluid it is possible to have abrup ttransitions between the pure and resonant 2D solutions, and that for the laterally heated model there exist a transient bifurcation via mixed mode solutions.

An aspect oriented performance analysis environment

AOSD'03 Practitioner Report Performance analysis is motivated as an ideal domain for benefiting from the application of Aspect Oriented (AO) technology. The experience of a ten week project to apply AO to the performance analysis domain is described. We show how all phases of a performance analysts’ activities – initial profiling, problem identification, problem analysis and solution exploration – were candidates for AO technology assistance – some being addressed with more success than others. A Profiling Workbench is described that leverages the capabilities of AspectJ, and delivers unique capabilities into the hands of developers exploring caching opportunities.

On Proactive Verifiable Secret Sharing Schemes

The paper has been presented at the International Conference Pioneers of Bulgarian Mathematics, Dedicated to Nikola Obreshkoff and Lubomir Tschakaloff , Sofia, July, 2006. The material in this paper was presented in part at the 11th Workshop on Selected Areas in Cryptography (SAC) 2004

Secret key exchange in ultra-long lasers by radio-frequency spectrum coding

We propose a new approach to the generation of an alphabet for secret key exchange relying on small variations in the cavity length of an ultra-long fiber laser. This new concept is supported by experimental results showing how the radio-frequency spectrum of the laser can be exploited as a carrier to exchange information. The test bench for our proof of principle is a 50 km-long fiber laser linking two users, Alice and Bob, where each user can randomly add an extra 1 km-long segment of fiber. The choice of laser length is driven by two independent random binary values, which makes such length become itself a random variable. The security of key exchange is ensured whenever the two independent random choices lead to the same laser length and, hence, to the same free spectral range.

Fabrication of high aspect ratio microfluidic devices using direct fs ablation

We present a single stage direct fs ablation results which show that it is possible to make high quality and high aspect ratio devices in a single stage process using a CAD optimised approach. © 2008 Optical Society of America.

Négy jellegzetesség. A magyar fejlődés politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben. 1. rész = Four characteristic features. Development in Hungary from the aspect of political economy. First Part

A két részből álló cikk a magyarországi reformfolyamat és posztszocialista átalakulás négy olyan jellegzetességét emeli ki, amelyek megszakítás nélkül, a politikai szférában bekövetkezett rendszerváltást követően is, folyamatosan jellemezték az elmúlt harminc év fejlődését: a lakosság anyagi jólétének prioritása, erős paternalista jóléti állam, a reformfolyamat és átmenet fokozatossága és a politikai nyugalom. Az 1995. március 12­én bejelentett stabilizációs program - amennyiben megvalósul - jelenthet elmozdulást ezektől a jellegzetességektől. A cikk politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben vizsgálja, hogy miért alakult ki ez a négy jellegzetesség, miképpen hatottak azok egymásra, milyen kedvező és kedvezőtlen hatásokat fejtettek ki. Az első rész az 1956­os forradalom hatásából kiindulva politikatörténeti áttekintést ad, majd a mai jólét, biztonság és nyugalom prioritását és a társadalmi adósság felhalmozódását, végül a stabilizációs program gazdasági és politikai hatásait elemzi. / === / The article, consisting of two parts, emphasizes four characteristic features of the Hungarian reform process and the post­socialist transformation, which, uninterruptedly, characterized the development over the last thirty years, even after the systemic change in the political sphere. These were: priority of the material welfare of the population, a strong, paternalistic welfare state, the gradual progress of the reform process and the transition, as well as political calmness. The stabilization programme, announced on March 12,1995, may imply - if it materializes - a shift away from these characteristics. The article investigates, from the aspect of political economy, why the four characteristic features had developed, how they affected each other and what were their advantageous and disadvantageous impacts. Setting out from the impacts of the 1956 revolution, the first part gives an overview of political history and then analyses the priority of today's welfare, security and calm as well as the accumulation of societal debt and, finally, the economic and political impacts of the stabilization programme.

Négy jellegzetesség. A magyar fejlődés politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben. 2. rész = Four characteristic features. Development in Hungary from the aspect of political economy - II.

A tulajdonviszonyok és intézmények átalakulását is a fokozatosság, a szerves fejlődés jellemzi; Magyarországon a hosszú reformszocialista fázist a politikai fordulat után sem követte ugrás a piacgazdaság felé, bár az átalakulás felgyorsult. A cikk a fokozatosság érvényesülését az értékesítési stratégia sokféle változatát alkalmazó, burjánzó privatizációban, az új vállalkozások keletkezésének folyamatában, a liberalizálás menetében és a jogi infrastruktúra változásában mutatja be. Elemzi az átmenet során megerősödő korporatista elemek hatását a magyar gazdaságpolitikára. Végül néhány összefoglaló megjegyzést fűz a magyar fejlődéshez a politikai gazdaságtan és a politikai filozófia szemszögéből. Az elmúlt harminc évben a mindenkori kormánynak jól érzékelhető preferenciája volt a radikális intézkedések elodázása, a társadalmi adósság felhalmozódásának vállalása a konfliktusok elkerülése érdekében. A szerző felhívja a figyelmet a különböző nemzedékek eltérő időpreferenciájára és az ezzel kapcsolatos etikai problémákra. Befejezésül a népszerűtlen intézkedéseket az állampolgárok nagy hányadának véleményével szemben is felvállaló kormányzás és a demokrácia viszonyáról szól. / === / Gradualism and organic development also distinguish the transformation of property relations and institutions. Hungary's long reform­socialist phase was not followed, after the political change, by a leap towards a market economy, although the transformation became faster. The article shows how gradualism applies to the proliferating of privatization, with its wide variety of selling strategies, to the foundation process of new firms, to the course of liberalization, and to change in the legal infrastructure. It analyses the effect on Hungarian economic policy of corporatist elements which strengthen during the transition. Finally, it makes some comments summing up Hungarian development in terms of political economy and political philosophy. The government at any time in the last thirty years showed an obvious preference for putting off radical measures and accepting an accumulation of social debt as a way of averting conflict. The article notes differences of time preference between generations and the ethical problems these raise. Finally, it makes remarks on the relationship between democracy and an administration intent on unpopular measures opposed by a high proportion of citizens.

An aspect-oriented approach to designing role-based access control services

Access control (AC) limits access to the resources of a system only to authorized entities. Given that information systems today are increasingly interconnected, AC is extremely important. The implementation of an AC service is a complicated task. Yet the requirements to an AC service vary a lot. Accordingly, the design of an AC service should be flexible and extensible in order to save development effort and time. Unfortunately, with conventional object-oriented techniques, when an extension has not been anticipated at the design time, the modification incurred by the extension is often invasive. Invasive changes destroy design modularity, further deteriorate design extensibility, and even worse, they reduce product reliability. ^ A concern is crosscutting if it spans multiple object-oriented classes. It was identified that invasive changes were due to the crosscutting nature of most unplanned extensions. To overcome this problem, an aspect-oriented design approach for AC services was proposed, as aspect-oriented techniques could effectively encapsulate crosscutting concerns. The proposed approach was applied to develop an AC framework that supported role-based access control model. In the framework, the core role-based access control mechanism is given in an object-oriented design, while each extension is captured as an aspect. The resulting framework is well-modularized, flexible, and most importantly, supports noninvasive adaptation. ^ In addition, a process to formalize the aspect-oriented design was described. The purpose is to provide high assurance for AC services. Object-Z was used to specify the static structure and Predicate/Transition net was used to model the dynamic behavior. Object-Z was extended to facilitate specification in an aspect-oriented style. The process of formal modeling helps designers to enhance their understanding of the design, hence to detect problems. Furthermore, the specification can be mathematically verified. This provides confidence that the design is correct. It was illustrated through an example that the model was ready for formal analysis. ^

Using secret shopping to assess student assistant training

This paper aims to describe the results of three rounds of secret shopping conducted at the Hubert Library of Florida International University, and how the results affected and were affected by changes made to circulation desk student training programs.