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Bitcoin is the first and most popular decentralized cryptocurrency to date. In this work, we extract and analyze the core of the Bitcoin protocol, which we term the Bitcoin backbone, and prove three of its fundamental properties which we call Common Prefix, Chain Quality, and Chain Growth in the static setting where the number of players remains fixed. Our proofs hinge on appropriate and novel assumptions on the "hashing power" of the protocol participants and their interplay with the protocol parameters and the time needed for reliable message passing between honest parties in terms of computational steps. A takeaway from our analysis is that, all else being equal, the protocol's provable tolerance in terms of the number of adversarial parties (or, equivalently, their "hashing power" in our model) decreases as the duration of a message passing round increases. Next, we propose and analyze applications that can be built "on top" of the backbone protocol, specifically focusing on Byzantine agreement (BA) and on the notion of a public transaction ledger. Regarding BA, we observe that a proposal due to Nakamoto falls short of solving it, and present a simple alternative which works assuming that the adversary's hashing power is bounded by 1/3. The public transaction ledger captures the essence of Bitcoin's operation as a cryptocurrency, in the sense that it guarantees the liveness and persistence of committed transactions. Based on this notion, we describe and analyze the Bitcoin system as well as a more elaborate BA protocol and we prove them secure assuming the adversary's hashing power is strictly less than 1/2. Instrumental to this latter result is a technique we call 2-for-1 proof-of-work (PoW) that has proven to be useful in the design of other PoW-based protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burnt pancake graph, denoted by BP n , is formed by connecting signed permutations via prefix reversals. Here, we discuss some spectral properties of BP n. More precisely, we prove that the adjacency spectrum of BP n contains all integer values in the set { 0 , 1 , ... , n } ∖ { ⌊ n / 2 ⌋ }. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 10 years, we have seen an enormous increase in the interest in Philippine English (PhilE) vocabulary. This is especially documented by the new entries of distinctive PhilE words in the Oxford English dictionary. Thanks to the rise of electronic mega‐corpora, such as GloWbE and the NOW Corpus, it has become possible to discover even more lexical innovations in PhilE. In this article, I compare nominal and adjectival suffixes across the following varieties of English: India, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain. The comparisons were carried out on a quantitative and qualitative level, based on the findings in GloWbE, NOW and ICE. Apart from suffixes, the article also discusses less frequent and productive types of word‐formation, such as synthetic compounds and splinters (budgetarian). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I parameterize the five tests proposed by Stevens (2005) for characterizing an element as an affixoid and formulate ten criteria for prefixation. Using these criteria, I analyze the morphological status of the initial components of Modern Greek words beginning with pale - and paʎo -. Contrary to Giannoulopoulou's (1999) analysis of paleo - as a "confix" and paʎo - as a "stem", I argue that pale - is a stem that has two allomorphic realizations: pale ~ paʎ. pale - is marked as [+learnèd] and paʎ - as [-learnèd]. While paʎo - historically derives from pale -, it has acquired a distinct morphological status and should now be considered a prefixoid. The ten criteria I present could serve as a model for determining the morphological status of initial elements in other Greek morphological structures and potentially in other languages where this status is ambiguous. Finally, I propose that prefixation in Greek differs from that in word-based languages. In Greek, prefixation is not a case of morphologization; rather, prefixes originate in and remain confined to the morphological domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linear-size suffix tries (LSTries) (Crochemore et al. in Theor Comput Sci 638:171–178, 2016) are a version of suffix trees in which the edge labels are single characters, yet are able to perform pattern matching queries in optimal time. Instead of explicitly storing the input text, LSTries have some extra non-branching internal nodes called type-2 nodes. The extended techniques are then used in the linear-size compact directed acyclic word graphs (LCDAWGs) (Takagi et al., in: SPIRE 2017, pp. 304–316, 2017), which can be stored with O (el (T) + er (T)) space (i.e. without the text), where el (T) and er (T) are the numbers of left- and right-extensions of the maximal repeats in the input text string T, respectively. In this paper, we present simpler alternatives to the aforementioned indexing structures, called the simplified LSTries (simLSTries) and the simplified LCDAWGs (simLCDAWGs), in which most of the type-2 nodes are removed. In particular, our simLCDAWGs require only O (er (T)) space and work in a weaker model of computation (i.e. the pointer machine model). This contrasts the O (er (T)) -space CDAWG representation of Belazzougui and Cunial (in: Proceedings of the 24th international symposium on string processing and information retrieval, pp. 161–175, 2017), which works on the word RAM model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the acquisition of directionals in Q'anjob'al, a Western Mayan language of Guatemala. The data come from a longitudinal study of two Q'anjob'al monolingual children of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala: Xhuw (1;9–2;5) and Xhim (2;3–3;5). The results show how these children acquire the morphological distribution of motion verbs and directionals in Q'anjob'al. They produce directionals parallel to motion verbs. Xhuw produced more motion verbs than directionals, while Xhim produced more directionals than motion verbs. Despite the omission of tense/aspect and agreement in the verb complex, these children produce two types of suffixes that distinguish motion verbs from directionals. The children acquired three groups of directionals in the following order: DIR3 (teq 'toward X', toq 'away from X') > DIR2 (el 'out' aj 'up' ok 'enter, in' ek' 'pass' ay 'down') > DIR1 (kan 'stay'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few studies have investigated second language (L2) knowledge of word parts. The present study was set to measure L2 recognition of 35 English prefixes and the factors that might predict scores. The form and meaning sections of Sasao and Webb's Word Part Levels Test were administered to 152 Arabic learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), followed by a test of vocabulary breadth, and a short language background questionnaire. The factors we explored in the mixed-effects model analysis were the following: vocabulary breadth, duration of L2 exposure, and type/amount of contact with English in the four modalities. We additionally, explored whether Sasao and Webb's difficulty estimates reflect Arabic EFL learners' knowledge of prefixes. Results showed that vocabulary breadth significantly predicted both form and meaning knowledge of English prefixes. Moreover, weekly hours of reading and communication in English contributed significantly to prefix knowledge. Finally, Webb and Sasao's difficulty estimates predicted scores on both the form and meaning tests and interacted with vocabulary breadth, showing that the most difficult prefixes were challenging regardless of vocabulary breadth. These results are discussed in light of previous research on L2 morphological awareness, highlighting implications for teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the typology of affix changes due to reanalysis. By discussing the Polish nominal suffix /-ix-/ as resulting from morphological reduction, viz. the false subtraction of /-k-/ from /-isk-/, the supposed unidirectionality of affix changes, i.e., the irreversibility of affix growth, is questioned. Furthermore, the article points to the possible gradual nature of morphological reanalysis, in line with recent studies in syntactic reanalysis. Other types of affix changes, which were previously unidentified or deemed impossible, are also commented on and the supposed parallelism between affix reanalysis and grammaticalization as well as degrammaticalization is considered, including the role of analogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the approximate parallel prefix adders with minimizing hardware and timing complexities are proposed. Moreover, an approximate multiplier based on these adders is designed. The approximate structures include two approximate Sklansky adders, one approximate Ladner-Fischer adder, and one approximate Kogge-Stone adder. The proposed adders are free from carry rippling. The main strategy for approximate design is primarily based on rearranging and deleting sub-blocks and secondary reducing the critical path delay and area in the adders. In this case, we have a trade-off between accuracy, delay, and area. The proposed approximate multiplier has a serial structure that is designed based on using one approximate parallel prefix adder. The proposed approximate adders and multiplier are compared from hardware and accuracy point of view such as gate count, delay, area delay product, error rate, mean error distance, mean relative error distance, and normalized error distance. The efficacy of proposed structures in image processing applications such as image smoothing (low-pass filter) and image multiplication is performed using MATLAB. The results show the proposed approximate structures are comparable in terms of area, delay, PSNR, and mean structural similarity index metric parameters with other works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delved into the nature of suffixation in Indonesian morphology, analyzing its crucial role in word formation and semantic variations. The present study investigated suffixation patterns, functions, and productivity by scrutinizing a corpus of Indonesian words, i.e., the Indonesian - Leipzig Corpora Collection (ILCC). This exploration used morphosemantics frameworks, two sets of instruments that consisted of verbal construction and noun construction tester, and empirical data to describe suffixation in Indonesian. The results showed that among the various suffixes that shaped the language's grammatical structure, /-kan/ (50.70% with S-occurrence: 217,208), /-nya/ (19.53% with S-occurrence: 83,648), /-an/ (16% with S-occurrence: 68,524), and /-lah/ (7.76% with S-occurrence: 33,220) emerged as the most prominent ones. Statistically, the mean value of verb suffixation (5.9) was higher than that of noun suffixation (5.6). Among these, /-kan/ primarily signified causation or transformation of a verb into a transitive verb, while /-nya/ indicated possession, /-an/ transformed verbs into nouns, and /-lah/ added an imperative meaning to the word. In terms of semantic modification and nuances, it has been discovered that suffixes like /- kan/, /-i/, and /-an/ change words' semantic structure in complex ways. The suffix /-kan/, which has a causal or transformational function, modifies the meaning of words by signifying the start of an action. Although /-an/ makes it easier for verbs to become nouns, /-i/ aids in objectification or verbalization. The findings of this study offer implications for the field of Indonesian language description, particularly in the areas of suffixal identification and classification, as well as morphological productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of head movement has been debated since its discovery (see Dékány 2018 for discussion). While it is generally agreed that head movement (the sort that results in the formation of complex heads) is subject to more stringent locality restrictions than phrasal movement, little else is uncontested. In this article, I will argue that a flexible (but literal) interpretation of Harizanov and Gribanova's (2019) definition of head movement (more specifically, their "amalgamation") is needed to account for the movement of suffixal adjectives (As) in Aleut. These As typically suffix to nominals, but under certain conditions surface in verbs between the root and agreement morphology. I show that these As base-generate as adjuncts of NPs and undergo head movement into the verbal complex. I then explore two theories of word-building which would require only phrasal movement on the part of suffixal As—based on ideas put forth in Julien (2002) and Compton and Pittman (2010)—and conclude that phrasal movement alone is too unrestricted to account for the phenomenon, overgenerating As in unacceptable sites. In contrast, previous theories of head movement are too restrictive, only permitting a head and the head of its complement to form a complex head (e.g., Travis 1984; Embick and Noyer 2001); this excludes heads in adjunct positions, like suffixal As, from participating. However, Harizanov and Gribanova's definition of amalgamation, whereby heads Raise or Lower into the nearest c-commanding or c-commanded head, uniquely allows head movement to occur out of specifier positions and even adjunct positions. This comparative flexibility correctly permits Aleut suffixal As to form a complex head with verbal morphology, explaining their incorporation deep within the structure of the verbal complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Linguistics Vanguard is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Linguistics Vanguard is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article deals with known challenges as well as new ones associated with the lexicographical solutions regarding derivatives in dictionaries. Five of Sweden's major monolingual dictionaries are being examined with the aim of describing and comparing their derivatives, with special focus on deverbal nouns with the suffix -ande. The research combines morphology, lexicography and metalexicography, aiming at presenting and discussing some of the key areas of lemma inclusion and word formation principles in Swedish monolingual, contemporary dictionaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word-final schwa in German inflectional suffixes shows varying realisations in spontaneous speech – from full realisations with varying duration to no realisation. While previous research has identified numerous social, distributional, and grammatical factors influencing the variation of phonetic variables in general, it remains unclear how fine-grained functional differences in different registers specifically affect schwa realisation. In this corpus-based study, we compare schwa realisation in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech – free conversation and task-based dialogues – which differ only in their communicative goal and therefore have different functional requirements. We find that schwa is rarely realised, though slightly but significantly more often in free conversation than in task-based dialogue. Other factors also promoting schwa realisation across both situations are less frequent verbs and sequences, and IP-final position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of the distribution of reflexive-reciprocal syncretism in Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Tanzania. Most Bantu languages encode reflexive and reciprocal constructions by means of two distinct verbal affixes. However, the Tanzanian Eastern Bantu languages under study have developed reflexive-reciprocal syncretism, in which the originally reflexive prefix has developed into a polyfunctional morpheme coding both reflexive and reciprocal constructions, to the detriment of the original reciprocal suffix. In a sample of 79 languages, reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is attested in 27 neighboring languages, thus constituting a clear areal feature. We propose that reflexive-reciprocal syncretism is not a language-internal innovation but was rather adopted from neighboring non-Bantu languages and subsequently spread out to its current distribution. We locate the heart of this contact-induced spread in the Tanzanian Rift Valley, a convergence zone in north-central Tanzania where languages from multiple African language families are spoken and have been in contact for an extensive period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nominal tense is a cross-linguistically rare and understudied phenomenon, with past vs. non-past being the minimal distinction. In some languages, past nominal tense implies the reading 'deceased', while in others, lifetime effects (i.e., implicatures about whether an individual is dead or alive) restrict its use with permanent properties (as with kinship terms). In our study, we investigate for the first time the online processing of lifetime effects in sentences with past nominal tense and kinship terms following contextual information about an individual's lifetime status (dead or alive). An end-of-sentence acceptability judgment task completes the study. Evidence comes from 25 speakers of Pomak (Slavic, Greece) who use the realis past suffix to form, among others, definite articles, contrasting with a generic suffix for the future, habitual, and irrealis. In collaboration with a local Pomak research assistant, we prepared 80 experimental sentences with past nominal tense in four conditions, manipulating Lifetime Status (dead × alive) and Tense Concord between nominal and verbal tense/aspect (congruent × incongruent). Our results suggest that past nominal tense with kinship terms triggers a lifetime effect which is apparent during online processing. In the sentence final region, dead referents with future verbal tense are read faster, possibly due to the overtness and severity of the violation. Reading disruptions for dead referents while processing nominal tense are also discussed. In the acceptability task, participants rated sentences only based on the agreement of the lifetime status with verbal tense/aspect as the violation is overt and severe. The present study therefore offers support to previous reports of lifetime effects in other languages with nominal tense, highlighting another similarity between nominal and verbal tense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterize those strings whose suffix arrays are based on arithmetic progressions, in particular, arithmetically progressed permutations where all pairs of successive entries of the permutation have the same difference modulo the respective string length. We show that an arithmetically progressed permutation P coincides with the suffix array of a unary, binary, or ternary string. We further analyze the conditions of a given P under which we can find a uniquely defined string over either a binary or ternary alphabet having P as its suffix array. For the binary case, we show its connection to lower Christoffel words, balanced words, and Fibonacci words. In addition to solving the arithmetically progressed suffix array problem, we give the shape of the Burrows–Wheeler transform of those strings solving this problem. These results give rise to numerous future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Mental fictionalism holds that folk psychology should be regarded as a kind of fiction. The present version gives a Lewisian prefix semantics for mentalistic discourse, where roughly, a mentalistic sentence “p” is true iff “p” is deducible from the folk psychological fiction. An eliminativist version of the view can seem self‐refuting, but this charge is neutralized. Yet a different kind of “self‐effacing” emerges: Mental fictionalism appears to be a mere “parasite” on a future science of cognition without contributing anything substantial. The paper then rebuts the objection, illustrating that prefix semantics resolves a lingering problem for eliminativism from Boghossian. The problem is that eliminativists seem unable to adopt realism about neuroscience, for such realism implies that neuroscientific statements represent reality accurately. However, a deflationary version of prefix semantics allows the eliminativist to draw an ontologically relevant distinction (roughly) between truths that have a storytelling prefix and those that do not. (Deflationism means there is no implication that the unprefixed sentences robustly represent reality). The overarching lesson is that eliminativists need to approach ontology carefully so as to avoid self‐refutation; however, prefix‐semantical mental fictionalism provides the resources for them to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a prosodic pattern that is part of standard negation in five Alaskan Dene languages spoken along the Tanana River. In all of these varieties, this "negative high" differs from the tonal distinction originating from historical constriction. We argue that it originates as an emphatic form of negative verb suffixation that is still partially productive in Koyukon. In the other Tanana languages, the negative high occupies different places in the grammar. In Upper Tanana it is a floating tone which associates with the negative verb stem. In Lower Tanana it is a high tone associated with the negative suffix. In Tanacross and Middle Tanana, the negative high is best analyzed as an utterance-level intonational pattern. To our knowledge, this type of intonational source for tone has not been described for other language families. Our study also has implications for typological studies of standard negation and for language teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the naming customs of married women in Taiwan during the nineteenth century. By attempting to unveil the factors that caused women to prefix the husband's surname, it shows that the practice likely developed from legal and property documents. It also elaborates the convention's relationship with women's family identity, arguing that women were "dual outsiders" in both the natal and affinal family. However, this study finally demonstrates that prefixing the husband's surname did not connote their passivity or subjugation as married women, especially widows who could rely on it to call upon their rights within the family and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crosslinking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) has the potential to map the interactome of the cell with high resolution and depth of coverage. However, current in vivo XL-MS methods are hampered by crosslinkers that demonstrate low cell permeability and require long reaction times. Consequently, interactome sampling is not high and long incubation times can distort the cell, bringing into question the validity any protein interactions identified by the method. We address these issues with a fast formaldehyde-based fixation method applied prior to the introduction of secondary crosslinkers. Using human A549 cells and a range of reagents, we show that 4% formaldehyde fixation with membrane permeabilization preserves cellular ultrastructure and simultaneously improves reaction conditions for in situ XL-MS. Protein labeling yields can be increased even for nominally membrane-permeable reagents, and surprisingly, high-concentration formaldehyde does not compete with conventional amine-reactive crosslinking reagents. Prefixation with permeabilization uncouples cellular dynamics from crosslinker dynamics, enhancing control over crosslinking yield and permitting the use of any chemical crosslinker. Crosslinking mass spectrometry protocols applied directly to cells can distort the spatial proteome. Here, the authors show that prefixing the cell with high concentrations of formaldehyde can prevent this, while simultaneously increasing crosslink yield and supporting the use of any type of crosslinker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization in various sectors makes information security issues very crucial. Information security follows the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) principle, where one of the most important parts is authentication. The most widely used authentication method is usernamepassword. The best method to secure a user-pass is to convert the plaintext using a hash so that the converted plaintext cannot be recovered. However, with higher technology, hackers can crack the ciphertext using brute force. This research proposes a username-password scrambling algorithm before it is fed into the hash function to improve resilience from attacks. This algorithm is named logical gates (LG). It works by converting the user pass into binary form, adding salt, and scrambling it with certain logical gates before inserting it into the hash function. Testing is divided into two: time of execution and attack resistance. Time of execution results show that LG takes 0.0443432033 s, while without LG takes 0.01403197646 s. The resistance of attack results show that the plaintext of the hash amplified by LG cannot be cracked at all and increases the attack time by 321.3% at prefix and 161.3% at postfix, while without LG, the plain text can be found for a certain duration of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suprafixation (more specifically, tonal affixation) is a word-building strategy that is somewhat frequently employed in Cantonese. This article explores the development of the lexical suprafixes in Standard Cantonese from three perspectives: (a) earlier descriptions of the Cantonese suprafixes and the behaviour of the lexical suprafixes in some older Romanised Cantonese texts; (b) the behaviour of the lexical suprafixes in some non-standard Cantonese varieties; and (c) the behaviour of the suprafixes and diminutives in Yuè and Pínghuà dialects in general. A definite answer cannot be found to the question of what the origin of the Cantonese suprafixes is. Nonetheless, the theory that the Cantonese lexical suprafixes stem from the diminutive suffix *ɲi 兒 (Cantonese ji4, Mandarin ér) remains the most convincing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motzkin paths with air pockets (MAP) of the first kind are defined as a generalization of Dyck paths with air pockets. They are lattice paths in ℕ2 starting at the origin made of steps U = (1, 1), Di = (1,−i), i ≥ 1, and H = (1, 0), where two down-steps cannot be consecutive. We enumerate MAP and their prefixes avoiding peaks (respectively, valleys, respectively, double rise) according to the length, the type of the last step, and the height of its end-point. We express our results using Riordan arrays. Finally, we provide constructive bijections between these paths and restricted Dyck and Motzkin paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper, a high‐performance and area‐efficient hardware structure of the ChaCha20 stream cipher is presented. The most complex operation in the ChaCha20 stream cipher is addition modulo 232. The addition is used in the round function computations and the addition of the last round result and initial state. We use the proposed sparse parallel prefix adder for the implementation of addition modulo 232, which has a low critical path delay. In the proposed structure, to reduce area consumption, we use resource sharing with minimum hardware. To increase throughput and speed, the four registers are used with two main tasks including the storing intermediate results of the round function and the break critical path delay for the pipeline of the structure. Also, based on the used registers in the structure, the computations of the last clock cycle of the previous round function and the first clock cycle from the next round function are computed concurrently. Implementation results such as delay, computation time, area, and throughput of the proposed structure in 180 nm CMOS technology and FPGA implementation on the device Xilinx Virtex‐7 XC7VX485T are achieved. The achieved results show that the design has better hardware and timing properties compared with other works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the use of Old English for-verbs, categorizing them into emphatic, expanded, and antonymous verbs. It discusses the reasons for the decline of these verbs, including frequency, limitations of the texts they appear in, and dialectal preferences. The study suggests that the decline of for-verbs in Old English occurred gradually and may have been influenced by Latin. The article also highlights the survival of some prefixed and non-prefixed verb pairs in Modern English. [Extracted from the article]

Suppose that a sequence of n cards, numbered 1 to n , is placed face up in random order. Let k be the number on the first card in the sequence. Then take the first k cards from the sequence, rearrange that subsequence of k cards in reverse order, and return them to the original sequence. Repeat this prefix reversal until the number on the first card in the sequence becomes 1. This is a one-player card game called Topswops. The computational complexity of Topswops has not been thoroughly investigated. For example, letting f (n) denote the maximum number of prefix reversals for Topswops with n cards, values of f (n) for n ≥ 20 remain unknown. In general, there is no known efficient algorithm for finding an initial sequence of n cards that requires exactly ℓ prefix reversals for any integers n and ℓ . In this paper, using a deck of cards, we propose a physical zero-knowledge proof protocol that allows a prover to convince a verifier that the prover knows an initial sequence of n cards that requires ℓ prefix reversals without leaking knowledge of that sequence. We also deal with Botdrops, a variant of Topswops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a philological assessment of the statement in Ezra 4:12b and offers a new translation. We focus on the word יַחִיטוּ. We propose to construe the form as originally * יְחִיטוּ , G-stem prefixing conjugation of חיט , »to inspect«. In order to substantiate our proposal we refer to a series of cognates in Aramaic and other Semitic languages. Two newly edited Aramaic documents from Elephantine are mentioned, as well as texts from Bactria, passages from the Gilgamesh Epic, and the story on the Tower of Babylon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End‐to‐end (E2E) testing is a commonly used technique for web application testing. Unlike traditional unit tests, E2E tests focus on test scenarios that target the entire business, which integrate and collaborate of various components and services to make the whole application work. As a result, one drawback of E2E tests is their longer execution time, seriously affecting testing efficiency of web applications. In order to speed up the execution of E2E tests for web applications, this paper proposes a test execution optimization approach based page state reuse. Through analyzing the common operations of E2E tests, a common prefix trees is constructed to organize the same operations among test scripts in a test suite of web applications. Under the guidance of the prefix tree, the optimal reusable state is identified and duplicated to maximize the utilization of page states triggered by the same operations, thereby reducing the overall execution time of the test suite. Besides, to realize page state reuse automatically, we design a browser process replication strategy, which implement querying the active page and duplicating the web page. To verify the effectiveness of our method, experiments and evaluations were conducted on 347 E2E tests from eight open‐source web applications, and the results showed that our approach reduced the E2E testing execution time for web applications by 52%–68%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the role of cue weighting, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 daily exposure in L2 learning of suprasegmentals different from the first language (L1), using eye‐tracking. Spanish monolinguals, English–Spanish learners, and Mandarin–Spanish learners saw a paroxytone and an oxytone verb (e.g., FIRma–firMÓ "s/he signs–signed"), listened to a sentence containing one of the verbs, and chose the one that they heard. The three languages have contrastive lexical stress, but suprasegmentals have a greater functional load in Mandarin than in English. Monolinguals predicted suffixes accurately with both stress conditions and favored oxytones, but learners predicted suffixes accurately only with oxytones, the condition activating fewer lexical competitors. Monolinguals predicted suffixes accurately sooner but at a slower rate than did learners. L2 proficiency, but not L1 or L2 exposure, facilitated L2 predictions. In conclusion, learners of a contrastive‐stress L1 rely on L2 suprasegmentals to the same extent as monolinguals, regardless of their L1. Lower L2 proficiency and higher cognitive load (more lexical competitors) reduce learners' reliance on suprasegmentals. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in nontechnical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Dictionaries of foreign words in Slovak have a tradition of publication that can be traced for more than one hundred years. Their popularity among users is closely connected to a general interest in so-called language cultivation, which includes a good knowledge of frequently used words of non-native origin. Here, special attention will be paid to suffixed loanwords. In the case of larger sets of loanwords with the same suffix, speakers recognize their similarity and regularity. The central aim of this paper is to investigate how the lexicographic representation of suffixed loanwords in Slovak dictionaries of foreign words developed in the past one hundred years. The analysis focuses on a set of loanwords with three non-native suffixes, namely - ácia ('-ation'), - izmus ('-ism'), and - ita ('-ity'), each of which stands in competition with a corresponding native suffix. It was investigated how the emergence of a competing variant with a native suffix attached to the same foreign base influences the information given by dictionaries. For the analysis, I used five dictionaries of foreign words in Slovak published between 1939 and 2005. Based on a sample of entries from these dictionaries, I distinguish four types of dictionary definitions used to describe suffixed loanwords. Then I propose a model explaining the historical and logical relationships between these four definition types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Railway Construction Technology is the property of Railway Construction Technology Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The possible impact of gender-sensitive language on readers is among the most controversially debated issues in linguistics and beyond. Previous studies have suggested that there is an effect of gender-sensitive language on mental representations, based on data gathered in laboratory settings with small groups of participants. We add a new perspective by examining correlations of authentic language use with authentic user interaction on a recruitment website. Drawing upon a large dataset provided by the recruitment platform StepStone, we evaluate whether job advertisements using certain kinds of gender-sensitive language in their titles correlate with higher proportions of views by female users. Our results indicate that there are differing effects depending on the type of gender-sensitive language that is used. Overall, the strongest correlation can be found with terms that include the feminine suffix -in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large language model refers to a deep learning model characterized by extensive parameters and pretraining on a large-scale corpus, utilized for processing natural language text and generating high-quality text output. The increasing deployment of large language models has brought significant attention to their associated privacy and security issues. Recent experiments have demonstrated that training data can be extracted from these models due to their memory effect. Initially, research on large language model training data extraction focused primarily on non-targeted methods. However, following the introduction of targeted training data extraction by Carlini et al., prefix-based extraction methods to generate suffixes have garnered considerable interest, although current extraction precision remains low. This paper focuses on the targeted extraction of training data, employing various methods to enhance the precision and speed of the extraction process. Building on the work of Yu et al., we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impact of different suffix generation methods on the precision of suffix generation. Additionally, we examine the quality and diversity of text generated by various suffix generation strategies. The study also applies membership inference attacks based on neighborhood comparison to the extraction of training data in large language models, conducting thorough evaluations and comparisons. The effectiveness of membership inference attacks in extracting training data from large language models is assessed, and the performance of different membership inference attacks is compared. Hyperparameter tuning is performed on multiple parameters to enhance the extraction of training data. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method significantly improves extraction precision compared to previous approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the notion of bargraphs as first quadrant, semi-perimeter defined lattice paths to that of a bargraph prefix where we relax the bargraph defining parameters and allow the bargraph to extend into negative territory. A bargraph prefix is any initial section of a bargraph. Generating functions for the prefixes which separately track the number of up, down and horizontal steps are found. The asymptotics for the average height of the last prefix step in the different bargraph extensions is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outputs of a Turing machine are not revealed for inputs on which the machine fails to halt. Why is an observer not allowed to see the generated output symbols as the machine operates? Building on the pioneering work of Mark Burgin, we introduce an extension of the Turing machine model with a visible output tape. As a subtle refinement to Burgin's theory, we stipulate that the outputted symbols cannot be overwritten: at step i, the content of the output tape is a prefix of the content at step j, where i < j . Our Refined Burgin Machines (RBMs) compute more functions than Turing machines, but fewer than Burgin's simple inductive Turing machines. We argue that RBMs more closely align with both human and electronic computers than Turing machines do. Consequently, RBMs challenge the dominance of Turing machines in computer science and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We proceed with the study of ultimate periodicity properties related to overlaps between the suffixes of a left-infinite word λ and the prefixes of a right-infinite word ρ . For a positive integer n, let g(n) be n minus the maximum length of overlaps between the suffix of λ and the prefix of ρ of length n. In a recent publication we have shown that the function g has finite image if and only if λ and ρ are ultimately periodic words with a same root. In this paper we give an asymptotic characterization of words λ and ρ for which the function g has finite image. We prove that this condition is true if and only if the sequence (g (n) / n) n tends to zero [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are not only vowel-initial suffixes but also consonant-initial suffixes in Kashika which when enters combination with stems, elicits morphophonemic changes in their derivatives. These morphophonemic features demonstrate a systematic patterning regardless of the grammatical word-class of the stems derived words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Middle Chinese witnessed the existence of a large number of new grammatical constituents, some of which had already been developed in the mid and late Old Chinese language before thriving in middle ancient times. Among these, the syntactic functions of nouns in Middle Chinese were in the process of evolutional development. The paper aims to investigate the nature of noun evolution by analyzing the exemplified data. It is found that nouns in Middle Chinese grammar mainly serve as subjects, objects, and attributes, though their direct link with predicates became less frequent due to the extensive usage of the copula of shì是 (be). The development of nouns mainly consisted of prefixes and suffixes, such as the prefix ā 阿, which emerged with its crucial evolutional features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphology plays a crucial role in students' language acquisition. This study delves into the distinctions between inflectional and derivational morphemes, aiming to enhance comprehension of these concepts. By investigating word creation processes and observed alterations, the study illustrates the profound impact of prefixes and suffixes on words, shedding light on their significance in language learning. Students frequently require clarification when distinguishing between inflectional and derivational morphemes during learning. To enhance comprehension of this subject, this present study initially investigated the definitions and subcategories of these two terms outlined in various literary sources. Next, it provided a concise overview of the critical distinctions between inflectional and derivational morphemes. These analyses aim to determine the word created by derivational morphemes, the word formed by inflectional morphemes, the process by which the specified word is formed, and the types of observed alterations. The author implements the descriptive qualitative approach. It will discover that each morpheme possesses its function and influences the base word's meaning, word class, or grammatical function. This study illustrates the impact of prefixes and suffixes on words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Brazilian Veneto (a heritage variety of Veneto spoken in several areas of Brazil), a stem alternation targets the plurals of masculine nominals ending in a consonant. While nominals with a word-final rhotic or nasal are pluralized by adding the masculine plural suffix / − i /   ([ b i ' t ∫ ̑ e r ] → [ b i ' t ∫ ̑ e r i ] 'glass'), pluralization in nominals with a final lateral involves deletion of the consonant (e.g., [ n i ' s o l ] → [ n i ' s o i ] 'bedsheet'). I argue that these differences stem from word-final laterals having a distinct representation from rhotics and nasals: while the latter are represented as codas, the former are represented as onsets of empty-headed syllables. Based on a corpus analysis, I show that (a) speakers' productions of these plurals are stable, and (b) other patterns of pluralization (namely, in monosyllables and words with final stress on a CV syllable) are consistent with the proposal. In addition, the behaviour of laterals with respect to resyllabification, metaphony and intervocalic consonant deletion further suggest that laterals are represented as onsets word-finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with imperfective suffixes in Russian. It argues that there are at least three imperfective suffixes, the progressive morpheme, the iterative marker and the habitual suffix. It is shown that they differ in morphosyntactic and semantic properties. As to their structural properties, the progressive suffix is the lowest marker; the iterative morpheme attaches in a higher position; and the habitual morpheme is structurally the highest element. Thus, the article argues against a unitary approach to the iterative suffix and the habitual morpheme. Semantically, the iterative suffix has a pluractional meaning, whereas the habitual suffix is a vague generic quantifier. As to their phonological properties, the three markers are homophonous; they are spelled out as an -yva- allomorph. In this respect, the suffixes differ from the morphological aspect operator encoding (im)perfectivity in the aspectual head, which is phonologically empty. Further, it is shown that there are certain prefixes in the verbal morphosyntactic structure that are placed between the progressive projection and the iterative projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forms of address must be pronominal in English but can be either pronominal or nominal in Vietnamese. I propose to analyze this fact as a parametric difference: the two languages choose different ways to implement one and the same general preference principle. This principle is Rule I, which favors binding over coreference. For English, Rule I compares bound and free expressions. For Vietnamese, Rule I compares bound and free pronouns. The analysis crucially relies on the hypothesis that speech acts are represented in the syntax. • There is a typological distinction between languages which allow nominal reference to discourse participants and languages that do not. • This distinction derives from a parametric difference. • English compares free and bound expressions while Vietnamese compares free and bound pronouns. • Speech acts are represented in the grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word aþolwarum occurring in Maxims I 198b is a crux, and although various readings have been suggested, none of them are satisfactory: some are philologically implausible, while others do not make good sense in the context. Since it is spelled as one word in the manuscript, and since -warum has generally been interpreted as a suffix meaning “inhabitants” that cannot be used as a simplex, it has almost unanimously been believed that it is one word. However, in order to attain a more plausible reading, we should divide it into two words, namely, aþol, an Anglian variant of adl “disease, pestilence”, and warum, an Anglian variant of (or a simple mistake for) a dative plural form of wer “man”, or a dative plural form of wara “inhabitant”. According to either reading, the passage compares the strife and affliction caused and thereby spread ever since the primeval fratricide committed by Cain with a pestilence. Strife among people and a pestilence are two of the major causes of human sufferings in the Old English poetic tradition and are quite comparable, and they are both conceived as something that spread from one place to another, which also makes the comparison quite appropriate in the context of Maxims I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isometric words are those words whose occurrence as a factor in a transformation of a word u in a word v can be avoided, while preserving the minimal length of the transformation. Such minimal length refers to a distance between u and v. In the literature, isometric words have been considered with respect to the Hamming distance and the Lee distance; the former especially for binary words, while the latter for k-ary words, with k ⩾ 2. Ham- and Lee- isometric words have been characterized in terms of their overlaps with errors. In this paper, we give algorithms to decide whether a word f, of length n, is Ham- or Lee-isometric and provide evidence of the possible non-isometricity by returning a pair of words of minimal length whose transformation cannot avoid the factor f. Such a pair of words is called a pair of witnesses and the minimal length of the witnesses is called the index of f. The algorithms run in O (n) time with a preprocessing of O (n) time and space to construct a data structure that allows answering LCA queries on the suffix tree of f in constant time. The correctness of the algorithms lies on some theoretical results on the index and the witnesses of a word that are here presented. The investigation on the index is completed by the characterization of words with minimum/maximum index. All the results are shown referring to both Hamming and Lee distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]