Parallel parsing of programming languages

A new method of specifying the syntax of programming languages, known as hierarchical language specifications (HLS), is proposed. Efficient parallel algorithms for parsing languages generated by HLS are presented. These algorithms run on an exclusive-read exclusive-write parallel random-access machine. They require O(n) processors and O(log2n) time, where n is the length of the string to be parsed. The most important feature of these algorithms is that they do not use a stack.

Die deutsche Sprache als Teil der sprachlichen und beruflichen Identität : Eine Studie unter Germanistikstudierenden der Universität Helsinki

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan saksan kielen merkitystä osana kielellistä ja ammatillista identiteettiä. Tutkimuskohteena ovat Helsingin Yliopiston germaanisen filologian opiskelijat, jotka ovat aloittaneet opintonsa vuosina 2008 ja 2009. Identiteettiä on tutkittu monilla eri tieteen aloilla, mutta yksimielisyyttä identiteetin määritelmästä ei ole, sillä eri tieteenalat painottavat tarkastelussaan eri näkökulmia. Tutkielman teoriaosassa pyritäänkin luomaan yleiskuva vallalla olevista käsityksistä ja käsitellään identiteettiä tarkemmin kielitieteellisestä näkökulmasta. Teoriaosassa kuvataan myös saksan kielen tämänhetkistä kansainvälistä asemaa, sillä kielen asema vaikuttaa vahvasti siihen, kuinka ko. kieleen suhtaudutaan ja halutaanko sitä opiskella vieraana kielenä. Vaikka identiteettiä onkin tutkittu paljon, ei vieraan kielen yliopisto-opiskelijoiden suhteesta opiskelemaansa kieleen ole kattavia tutkimuksia. Opiskelijoiden suhtautuminen vieraaseen kieleen heijastuu kuitenkin heidän oppimiseensa, motivaatioonsa ja laaja-alaisemmin koko opiskeluun, joten tätä tutkimalla voidaan saavuttaa tärkeää tietoa, jota voidaan hyödyntää mm. yliopisto-opintojen kehittämisessä. Tutkielman tavoitteena onkin kuvata tätä erityislaatuista suhdetta ja selvittää, miten opiskelijat kuvaavat suhdettaan saksan kieleen. Kielellisen identiteetin näkökulmasta tutkitaan, miten opiskelijat suhtautuvat saksan kieleen, miten he kuvaavat omaa kielitaitoaan ja mitkä tekijät ovat vaikuttaneet kielellisen identiteetin kehittymiseen senhetkiseen muotoonsa. Ammatillisen identiteetin kannalta selvitetään, kuinka suuri merkitys saksan kielellä on osana opiskelijoiden ammatillista identiteettiä ja miten opiskelijat haluavat käyttää hyväkseen saksan kielen taitoaan työelämässä. Tutkielman korpus koostuu opiskelijoiden kirjoitelmista, jotka ovat osa TAITO-hanketta, sekä Saksalaisen laitoksen (laitos on vuodesta 2010 osa Nykykielten laitosta) lukuvuosina 2008 ja 2009 uusille opiskelijoilleen teettämistä lähtökyselyistä. Analyysi on kaksiosainen, jotta saavutetaan mahdollisimman kattava kuva opiskelijoiden identiteetistä. Ensimmäisessä osassa kirjoitelmia analysoidaan autobiografisen metodin avulla. Toisessa osassa korpuksia verrataan toisiinsa kvantitatiivisesti ja tutkitaan ovatko opiskelijat kuvanneet suhdettaan saksan kieleen samalla tavalla molemmissa korpuksissa. Tutkimuksesta käy ilmi, että opiskelijat aloittavat opintonsa hyvin erilaisista lähtökohdista, mikä ilmenee opiskelijoiden eritasoisen kielitaidon ja erilaisten odotusten lisäksi myös eroina identiteeteissä. Saksan kielellä on tärkeä merkitys suurimmalle osalle tutkituista opiskelijoista. Heidän kielellinen identiteettinsä on selvästi muotoutunut, ja he ovat motivoituneita opiskeluun. Heidän ammatillinen identiteettinsä on sitä vastoin epätarkempi, mikä osoittaa tarvetta opiskelijoiden tukemiseen ja työelämäorientaatioon jo opintojen alusta lähtien.

Data definition and manipulation languages for a CAD database

In this paper the main features of ARDBID (A Relational Database for Interactive Design) have been described. An overview of the organization of the database has been presented and a detailed description of the data definition and manipulation languages has been given. These have been implemented on a DEC 1090 system.

Eru Ilúvatar : Jumala J.R.R. Tolkienin legendariumissa

The purpose of my research is to inquire into the essence and activity of God in the legendarium of the English philologist and writer J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973). The legendarium, composed of Tolkien’s writings related to Middle-earth, was begun when he created two Elvish languages, Quenya based on Finnish, Sindarin based on Welsh. Tolkien developed his mythology inspired by Germanic myths and The Kalevala. It is a fictional ancient history set in our world. The legendarium is monotheistic: God is called Eru ‘The One’ and Ilúvatar ‘Father of All’. Eru is the same as the Christian God, for Tolkien wanted to keep his tales consistent with his faith. He said his works were Christian by nature, with the religious element absorbed into the story and the symbolism. In The Silmarillion, set in the primeval ages of Middle-earth, the theological aspects are more conspicuous, while in The Lord of the Rings, which brings the stories to an end, they are mostly limited to symbolic references. The legendarium is unified by its realistic outlook on creaturely abilities and hope expressing itself as humbly defiant resistance. ”The possibility of complexity or of distinctions in the nature of Eru” is a part of the legendarium. Eru Ilúvatar is Trinitarian, as per Tolkien’s faith. Without contextual qualifiers, Eru seems to refer to God the Father, like God in the Bible. Being the creator who dwells outside the world is attributed to Him. The Holy Spirit is the only Person of the Trinity bestown with names: the Flame Imperishable and the Secret Fire. When Eru creates the material world with His word, He sends the Flame Imperishable to burn at the heart of the world. The Secret Fire signifies the Creative Power that belongs to God alone, and is a part of Him. The Son, the Word, is not directly mentioned, but according to one writing Eru must step inside the world in order to save it from corruption, yet remain outside it at the same time. The inner structure of the legendarium refers to the need for a future salvation. The creative word of Eru, “Eä! Let these things Be!”, probably has a connection with the Logos in Christianity. Thus we can find three “distinctions” in Eru: a Creator who dwells outside the world, a Sustainer who dwells inside it and a Redeemer who shall step inside it. Some studies of Tolkien have claimed that Eru is distant and remote. This seems to hold water only partially. Ilúvatar, the Father of All, has a special relation with the Eruhíni, His Children, the immortal Elves and the mortal Men. He communicates with them directly only through the Valar, who resemble archangels. Nevertheless, only the Children of Eru can fight against evil, because their tragic fortunes turn evil into good. Even though religious activities are scarce among them, the fundamental faith and ultimate hope of the “Free Peoples” is directed towards Eru. He is present in the drama of history as the “Author of the Story”, who at times also interferes with its course through catastrophes and eucatastrophes, ‘good catastrophes’. Eru brings about a catastrophe when evil would otherwise bring good to an end, and He brings about a eucatasrophe when creaturely strength is not sufficent for victory. Victory over corruption is especially connected with mortal Men, of whom the most (or least) insignificant people are the Hobbits. However, because of the “primeval disaster” (that is, fall) of Mankind, ultimate salvation can only remain open, a hope for the far future.

Toward a widely usable finite-state morphology workbench for less studied languages, 1: Desiderata

Most of the world’s languages lack electronic word form dictionaries. The linguists who gather such dictionaries could be helped with an efficient morphology workbench that adapts to different environments and uses. A widely usable workbench could be characterized, ideally, as generally applicable, extensible, and freely available (GEA). It seems that such a solution could be implemented in the framework of finite-state methods. The current work defines the GEA desiderata and starts a series of articles concerning these desiderata in finite- state morphology. Subsequent parts will review the state of the art and present an action plan toward creating a widely usable finite-state morphology workbench.

Zur lexikographischen Darstellung der Adjektivsyntax in neueren einsprachigen Wörtbüchern des Deutschen

The main objects of the investigation were the syntactic functions of adjectives. The reason for the interest in these functions are the different modes of use, in which an adjective can occur. All together an adjective can take three different modes of use: attributive (e. g. a fast car), predicative (e. g. the car is fast) and adverbial (e. g. the car drives fast). Since an adjective cannot always take every function, some dictionaries (esp. learner s dictionaries) deliver information within the lexical entry about any restrictions. The purpose of the research consisted of a comparison in relation to the lexical entries of adjectives, which were investigated within four selected monolingual German-speaking dictionaries. The comparison of the syntactical data of adjectives were done to work out the differences and the common characteristics of the lexical entries concerning the different modes of use and to analyse respective to assess them. In the foreground, however, were the differences of the syntactical information. Concerning those differences it had to be worked out, which entry is the grammatically right one respective if one entry is in fact wrong. To find that out an empirical analysis was needed, which based on the question in which way an adjective is used within a context as far as there are no conforming data within the dictionaries. The delivery of the correctness and the homogeneity of lexical entries of German-speaking dictionaries are very important to support people who are learning the German language and to ensure the user friendliness of dictionaries. Throughout the investigations it became clear that in almost half of the cases (over 40 %) syntactical information of adjectives differ from each other within the dictionaries. These differences make it for non-native speakers of course very difficult to understand the correct usage of an adjective. Thus the main aim of the doctoral thesis was it to deliver and to demonstrate the clear syntactical usage of a certain amount of adjectives.

PROMIDS: A PROtotype multi-rIng data flow system for functional programming languages

This paper presents a detailed description of the hardware design and implementation of PROMIDS: a PROtotype Multi-rIng Data flow System for functional programming languages. The hardware constraints and the design trade-offs are discussed. The design of the functional units is described in detail. Finally, we report our experience with PROMIDS.

Public opinion on useful languages in Europe

This article analyses the results of five Eurobarometer surveys (of 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2005) designed to measure which languages Europeans consider most useful to know. Most Europeans are of the opinion that English is the most useful, followed by French and German. During the last decade the popularity of French and German as useful languages has been decreasing significantly, while English has remained universally favoured as the most useful language. French and German have lost their popularity especially among those who do not speak them as a foreign language. On the other hand, Spanish, Russian and other languages (often these include languages of neighbouring countries, minority languages or a second official language of the country in question) have kept and even increased their former level of popularity. Opinions about useful languages vary according to a respondent’s knowledge of languages, education and profession. This article analyses these differences and discusses their impact on the study of foreign languages and the future of the practice of foreign languages in Europe.