Search

The present interview with the actress and crossover singer, Bianca Tadini, reveals aspects about her personal methods of study, learning, and teaching, considering a variate repertoire. It is a situation that demands considerable differences in vocal production, without, however, reminiscences between one style and another. The questions in the interview prioritize the decisions over situations in which the work exigencies were the alternation between Opera and Musical Theatre. The interviewee, in her opinion, relates which was the elements that facilitated her learning process, and what else she applies as in her study and the maintainability of her vocal technique as in her pedagogical approach.

This paper examines the impact of continuous-time interactions on the dynamics of repeated battle of the sexes games with laboratory experiments. In discrete time, players often coordinate by alternating each period between the two pure Nash equilibria. In continuous time, players can respond more quickly but must contend with a very rich strategy space and with the lack of a natural coordination device. The experiment also examines a new hybrid-time environment that runs in continuous time but offers a discrete payoff-irrelevant signal. The results suggest that the hybrid signal device greatly facilitates both coordination and alternation. Players generally tend to alternate asynchronously in continuous time, and the transitions between pure Nash equilibria are mainly driven by the “disadvantaged player”.

Representations held in working memory are crucial in guiding human attention in a goal-directed fashion. Currently, it is debated whether only a single representation or several of these representations can be active and bias behavior at any given moment. In the present study, 25 university students performed a behavioral dense-sampling experiment to produce an estimate of the temporal-activation patterns of two simultaneously held visual templates. We report two key novel results. First, performance related to both representations was not continuous but fluctuated rhythmically at 6 Hz. This corresponds to neural oscillations in the theta band, the functional importance of which in working memory is well established. Second, our findings suggest that two concurrently held representations may be prioritized in alternation, not simultaneously. Our data extend recent research on rhythmic sampling of external information by demonstrating an analogous mechanism in the cyclic activation of internal working memory representations.

Perfective stem allomorphy and stress are morphological traits which interact in complex ways in Romance verbal inflection. This article surveys the whole range of variation of these traits across Romance varieties, typologizes the observed interactions between the two, and examines attested and unattested possibilities. A comparison between the modern-day and the original Latin systems suggests that there is a strong pan-Romance bias against having verbs with a concrete combination of properties: perfective root-stress and no perfective stem alternation. This is a combination of traits that would have frequently resulted in diagonal syncretisms between past and present given the phonological changes attested in the daughter languages. Homophony avoidance (and the adaptive-discriminative role of morphology more generally) are therefore argued to motivate the observed bias. Keywords: change biases; diachrony; homophony; morphology; predictability; syncretism

Neste artigo retomamos os objetivos e metas colocados no âmbito do eixo “Questões Teóricas e Metodológicas” para o estudo da variação e mudança linguística e destacamos suas contribuições no que tange à interface entre a Sociolinguística Variacionista e outros modelos teóricos. Ilustramos as questões que permeiam pesquisas desenvolvidas neste eixo, discutindo a forma como a variação sociolinguística, entendida em termos de alternância entre formas, pode ou tem sido analisada na perspectiva de diferentes modelos teóricos. Concentramos nossa atenção na interface com os Modelos Baseados no Uso, e mais particularmente, na possibilidade de conjugação entre os pressupostos teóricos centrais da Sociolinguística Variacionista e da Gramática de Construções Cognitiva. Partimos do princípio de que qualquer diálogo entre a Sociolinguística e outras teorias implica a incorporação do componente social da linguagem em um modelo de gramática. Retomando alguns pressupostos centrais dos Modelos Baseados no Uso (GCBU), procuramos mostrar a forma como a variação sociolinguística tem sido compatibilizada com as perspectivas que partem do pressuposto de indissociabilidade entre sistema e uso linguístico. Destacamos a forma como a alternância de construções tem sido acomodada no corpo teórico da UBCG.

Adaptation to changing environments involves the appropriate extraction of environmental information to achieve a behavioral goal. It remains unclear how behavioral flexibility is guided under situations where the relevant behavior is ambiguous. Using functional brain mapping of machine learning decoders and directional functional connectivity, we show that brain-wide reversible neural signaling underpins task encoding and behavioral flexibility in ambiguously changing environments. When relevant behavior is cued ambiguously during behavioral shifting, neural coding is attenuated in distributed cortical regions, but top-down signals from the prefrontal cortex complement the coding. When behavioral shifting is cued more explicitly, modality-specialized occipitotemporal regions implement distinct neural coding about relevant behavior, and bottom-up signals from the occipitotemporal region to the prefrontal cortex supplement the behavioral shift. These results suggest that our adaptation to an ever-changing world is orchestrated by the alternation of top-down and bottom-up signaling in the fronto-occipitotemporal circuit depending on the availability of environmental information.

This article reveals two faces of the adversative morpheme ke(shi) in Mandarin Chinese, focusing on the use of ke(shi) in a clause preceded by an antecedent clause. It has been noted in the literature that ke(shi) in the pre-subject position is a conjunction while ke(shi) in the post-subject position is an adverb; in this study, we find that these two positions/categories of ke(shi) are semantically/pragmatically different and not in free alternation. In our proposal, they differ in that only the conjunctive ke(shi) may mark an explicit contrast such as semantic opposition. Furthermore, even though both the conjunctive ke(shi) and the adverbial ke(shi) may mark an implicit contrast with respect to counterexpectationality, they do not specify the same type. Only the conjunctive ke(shi) may signal indirect counterexpectationality related to the antecedent clause, while only the adverbial ke(shi) may signal counterexpectationality independent of the antecedent clause. We conclude that the two cases of ke(shi) have different functions and should be regarded as distinct, independent items.

Studies of structural connectivity at the synaptic level show that in synaptic connections of the cerebral cortex, the excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) in most synapses exhibits sub-mV values, while a small number of synapses exhibit large EPSPs ( $\gtrsim 1.0$ [mV]). This means that the distribution of EPSP fits a log-normal distribution. While not restricting structural connectivity, skewed and long-tailed distributions have been widely observed in neural activities, such as the occurrences of spiking rates and the size of a synchronously spiking population. Many studies have been modeled this long-tailed EPSP neural activity distribution; however, its causal factors remain controversial. This study focused on the long-tailed EPSP distributions and interlateral synaptic connections primarily observed in the cortical network structures, thereby having constructed a spiking neural network consistent with these features. Especially, we constructed two coupled modules of spiking neural networks with excitatory and inhibitory neural populations with a log-normal EPSP distribution. We evaluated the spiking activities for different input frequencies and with/without strong synaptic connections. These coupled modules exhibited intermittent intermodule-alternative behavior, given moderate input frequency and the existence of strong synaptic and intermodule connections. Moreover, the power analysis, multiscale entropy analysis, and surrogate data analysis revealed that the long-tailed EPSP distribution and intermodule connections enhanced the complexity of spiking activity at large temporal scales and induced nonlinear dynamics and neural activity that followed the long-tailed distribution.

The article deals with encoding Source arguments of the predicate ‘take’ in the languages of Europe and identifies factors involved in Differential Source Marking. Animacy turns out to play the crucial role in this respect: while the encoding of animate Sources is rather homogeneous, inanimate Sources are encoded in different ways depending on the localization. The encoding of animate source can coincide with that of one of the two (or both) basic localizations: IN or ON or be different from it. Differential Marking of animate Sources is attested in Central Europe and implies recipient-like vs. ablative-like alternation where the encoding depends on whether something is taken for good or not and whether some extra force is applied or not. Differential Marking of inanimate Sources occurs in quite a number of European languages with different localizations; it is not always symmetrical to Differential Translocation Marking and can depend on the topicality on the argument or its semantic type.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on morphological structure, complexity and change in both the area of morphology and that of creolistics by revisiting the phenomenon of verb form alternation in Mauritian Kreol (I will from here onwards refer to the language as Mauritian for readability even though speakers refer to it as kreol.), a French lexified creole. Using a lexical database of 2039 distinct verbs, I show that contrary to previous assumptions, the verb alternation found in Mauritian cannot strictly be reduced to phonological or morphosyntactic principles. I argue that Mauritian has evolved a purely morphological distinction between two verb forms of the same lexeme (a long and a short form) whose heterogeneous distribution can be characterized as morphomic (Aronoff, 1994; Maiden 2018)—and therefore as contributing significantly to the system’s integrative complexity (Ackerman and Malouf 2013). The existence of morphomic structure crucially weakens repeated claims about creoles’ ‘exceptional’ status. The diachronic emergence of the alternation does not in fact constitute grammatical simplification. Rather, Mauritian verb forms are a reflex of the French paradigmatic organization whose function is exapted in the linguistic ecology in which Mauritian emerged. The type of recalibration witnessed in the Mauritian verb system offers a new lens into creole genesis, which is consistent with the view that morphology is a complex adaptive system whose development is driven by discriminative learning and communicative constraints.

This article deals with the syntax and semantics of Old English Try verbs within the framework of verb classes and alternations and the theory of Role and Reference Grammar. The analysis focuses on class membership and includes meaning components and argument realization (linking in simplex and complex constructions and alternations). The inventory of verbs under analysis comprises (ge)cneordlǣcan, (ge)fandian, fundian, hīgian, onginnan and (ge)tilian. The main conclusion is that the class of Old English Try verbs is syntactically and semantically consistent, even though evidence for the nominalisation alternation has been found for hīgian only.

The midsession reversal paradigm confronts an animal with a two-choice discrimination task where the reward contingencies are reversed at the midpoint of the session. Species react to the reversal with either win-stay/lose-shift, using local information of reinforcement, or reversal estimation, using global information, e.g. time, to estimate the point of reversal. Besides pigeons, only mammalian species were tested in this paradigm so far and analyses were conducted on pooled data, not considering possible individually different responses. We tested twelve kea parrots with a 40-trial midsession reversal test and additional shifted reversal tests with a variable point of reversal. Birds were tested in two groups on a touchscreen, with the discrimination task having either only visual or additional spatial information. We used Generalized Linear Mixed Models to control for individual differences when analysing the data. Our results demonstrate that kea can use win-stay/lose-shift independently of local information. The predictors group, session, and trial number as well as their interactions had a significant influence on the response. Furthermore, we discovered notable individual differences not only between birds but also between sessions of individual birds, including the ability to quite accurately estimate the reversal position in alternation to win-stay/lose-shift. Our findings of the kea’s quick and flexible responses contribute to the knowledge of diversity in avian cognitive abilities and emphasize the need to consider individuality as well as the limitation of pooling the data when analysing midsession reversal data. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10071-021-01524-1.

This research aims to analyze the elaboration, extension, and improvement contained in the data. The data source of this research is Naela Ali’s story of rainy days written by Naela Ali as the best-selling short story in 2018. The research data is in the form of clauses collected from short stories on rainy days. The theory used to analyze the meaning of the data is a logical-semantic theory. From this study, There are 3 types of logical semantic found in “Stories for Rainy Days” Short Story By Naela Ali: elaboration, extension, and enhancement. this research concludes that there is 83 logical semantics (expansion) found in the "stories for rainy days" consisting of 5 elaborations; 65 paratactic extensions and 1 hypotactic extension; 1 increased paratactic and 9 increased hypotactic; and 2 extensions and enhancements. The realization of logical semantic relation used in “Stories for Rainy Days” Short Story By Naela Ali based on the kinds of each logical-semantics those are: Elaboration consist of exemplification and clarification, there is no exposition. Extension consists of addition, variation, alternation. Enhancement consists of paratactic enhancement and hypotactic enhancement including manner, causal-purpose, spatial and causal-reason.

The “dynamic coevolution of meaning and form” of Bybee et al. (1994: 20) has been the subject of significant discussion as regards the languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. However, little work has focused on the mechanisms through which this coevolution occurs when it does surface in these languages. The current work considers phonological reidentification resulting from phonetic reduction in White Hmong (Hmong-Mien, Laos) involving four morphemes, ntshai/ntshe ‘maybe’, saib/seb ‘see if/whether; comp.cfact’, puag/pug ‘locl;ints’, and niaj/nej ‘each, every’. These morphemes exhibit an alternation where a rime is phonologically reidentified in a manner consistent with typical phonetic underarticulation patterns, such that an exemplar-model approach (Pierrehumbert 2001, inter alia) provides a straightforward explanation. Furthermore, the data show that the phonological reidentification patterns found in White Hmong exhibit parallels in other languages in the region, confirming that an areal approach to grammaticalization provides greater descriptive adequacy cross-linguistically as regards this phenomenon.

The congruency sequence effect (CSE) describes the performance difference of congruent trials (in which target and distractor stimuli are associated with the same response) compared to incongruent trials (in which target and distractor stimuli are associated with different responses) as a function of the preceding congruency level (congruent trials relative to incongruent trials). The CSE is commonly interpreted as a measure of conflict-induced attentional adjustment. Although previous research has made substantial progress aiming at controlling for alternative explanations of the CSE, both task-specific and fundamental confounds have remained. In the current study, we used a temporal flanker task, in which two stimuli (i.e., distractor and target) are presented in rapid succession, and extended previous demonstrations of a CSE in flanker tasks by deconfounding target-distractor congruency from perceptual similarity. Using a four-choice task, we could also control for the reversal of distractor-response priming after incongruent trials (which is only feasible in two-choice tasks). Furthermore, we controlled for all confounds based on the sequence (i.e., repetition versus alternation) of the congruency level – such as feature sequence effects, distractor-response contingency switch costs, or temporal learning – by probing the allocation of attention to the points in time of presentation of the first and the second stimulus of a trial. This was achieved by intermixing trials of a temporal search task. The performance accuracy results in this task were consistent with a stronger attentional bias in favor of the target stimulus’ temporal position after incongruent than after congruent trials.

The paper is about the acoustic effect of Urdu phonological rules on Pakistani Urdu speakers' English speech. The objective of the study is to discuss the phenomenon of multiple pronunciations of an English word that has the same spellings, meaning, and part of speech but different pronunciations in the English speech of Urdu speakers. Sometimes these alternative pronunciations are considered mispronunciation rather than multiple pronunciations. The primary purpose of this study is to make a boundary-line between mispronunciations and multiple pronunciations of English vocabulary. Thus, an acoustic analysis of Urdu speakers' English speech has been done by collecting speech data of 30 Urdu speakers from the Public sector universities of Pakistan. Consequently, this paper caters to language-dependent variations of Urdu. This paper only deals with three phonological rules, i.e., segment alternation, ellipsis, epenthesis, which become the cause for re-syllabification of English words. These three foci of research have been selected because the data analysis has confirmed that the 'multiple pronunciation' is mainly occurred due to these three elements. These three categories cover several sub-categories that cover many instances in the data analysis. The data also confirms that phonological variations occur due to stress shifting in Urdu speakers' English speech in Pakistan. Keywords: Multiple pronunciations, phonological rules, epenthesis, ellipsis, segment alternation, re-syllabification

T3 sandhi in Mandarin is a phonological alternation where two adjacent T3-T3 tones are not allowed and become T[2]-T3. Although this phenomenon has been extensively studied in previous work, concerns about how T3 sandhi is represented in the mental lexicon remain controversial. We approached the issue of representation in a series of cross-modal priming experiments, including two semantic priming experiments with and without context. Our results indicated that T2 failed to prime a target beginning with T3 in a non-sandhi context. However, both T2 and T3 were able to induce semantic activation when appropriate contextual information was present. Conversely, when such information was absent, only T3 activated the lexical entry. Thus, our study suggests that T3 is specified, as expected for dissimilation, and T2 is resolved by a re-writing rule only under appropriate contextual information.

In the present study we challenge the generally accepted view based primarily on L1 data that surface linguistic information decays rapidly during reading and that only propositional information is retained in memory. In two eye-tracking experiments, we show that both L1 and L2 adult readers retain verbatim information of a text. In particular, the reading behaviour of L2 German learners revealed that they were sensitive to both lexical (synonyms) and syntactic (active/passive alternation) substitutions during a second reading of the texts, while L1 exhibited only reduced sensitivity to the lexical substitutions. The results deliver an important piece of evidence that complies with several current processing (e.g., Shallow Structure Hypothesis), acquisition (Declarative/Procedural Model) and cognitive (e.g., Fuzzy Trace Theory) approaches and adds a new dimension to their empirical and theoretical basis.

Straipsnyje analizuojami trumposios šaknies intarpiniai ir sta kamieno veiksmažodžiai, užfiksuoti XVI–XIX a. žemaičių kilmės autorių darbuose. Šie veiksmažodžiai klasifikuojami ir aptariami pagal jų šaknies finalės tipą, kuris lemia skirtingus konstrukcinio įvairavimo modelius. Senuosiuose žemaičių raštuose užfiksuotų veiksmažodžių morfologinė struktūra įvairuoja panašiai kaip ir dabartinėse žemaičių patarmėse, tačiau randama ir nemaža skirtumų, todėl senųjų raštų veiksmažodžiai gretinami su dabartinių žemaičių patarmių duomenimis, siekiant nustatyti įvairuojančių formų lokalizaciją, paplitimo ribas bei jų chronologinę ir arealinę distribuciją, struktūros pokyčių tendencijas ir jų motyvus. Taip pat siekiama išanalizuoti ir kuo tiksliau pagal surinktus duomenis nustatyti ankstyviausią na kamieno vartojimo fazę bei lokalizuoti šio kamieno vartojimo ištakas. The article focuses on short-rooted infixed and sta stem verbs attested in the works written by Samogitian authors dating back to the 16–19th century. In this article the aforementioned verbs are classified and analysed according to the type of the consonant closing the verbal root which supposedly underpins different models of their constructional alternation. The morphological structure of verbs attested in the old Samogitian scripts exhibit similar alternation models to those found in current Samogitian sub-dialects, however, there are some notable differences as well. The verbs found in old Samogitian scripts are compared to those found in Samogitian sub-dialects in order to determine the localization of alternating forms, their chronological and areal distribution as well as the tendencies and motives for their structural change. Also, an attempt is made to determine the earliest stage and localization of the use of na stem forms attested in the Samogitian written texts in question.

Social networking services, such as Facebook, are important channels of communication both for monolingual users and for those having various degrees of proficiency in L2, with the latter deploying expression both from L1 and L2. It can, therefore, be presumed that communication on FB plays a role in practicing the use of L2. One of the phenomena that can be examined in relation to that are various forms of code-switching. There is animmense research gap related to Polish-English code-switching appearing on this SNS. To obtain a full picture of the issue, the paper identifies and discusses types, strategies, and functions of Polish-English code-switches found in posts and comments published by Poles on Facebook in 2014–2019. It also indicates possible applications of FB tools and materials including CS in foreign language teaching and learning and shows how Facebook enables “social learning” (Mallia, 2013). The research is based on a corpus constructed by the author of this article. An integrated approach with both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis is used in the paper. Three main CS types (intrasentential, intersentential, and tag-switching) and strategies (alternation, insertion, and congruent lexicalisation) have been attested in the material. The code-switches mostly indicate in-group membership but also, for example, introduce humor, quotes, and signal a lack of L1 equivalents. The study points out that there are certain relations between the types, strategies and functions. The resultsof the research are collated with the recent studies on Polish-English and Indonesian-English CS on Facebook.

Akin to handedness in humans, some animals show a preference for moving to the left or right. This is often attributed to lateralised cognitive functions and eye dominance, which, in turn, influences their behaviour. In fishes, behavioural lateralisation has been tested using detour mazes for over 20 years. Studies report that certain individuals are more likely to approach predators or potential mates from one direction. These findings imply that the lateralisation behaviour of individuals is repeatable, but this is rarely confirmed through multiple testing of each individual over time. Here we quantify the repeatability of turning behaviour by female mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) in a double sided T-maze. Each female was tested three times in each of six treatments: when approaching other females, males, or an empty space; and when able to swim freely or when forced to choose by being herded from behind with a net. Although there was no turning bias based on the mean population response, we detected significant repeatability of lateralisation in five of the six treatments (R = 0.251–0.625). This is noteworthy as we also found that individuals tended to alternate between left and right turns, meaning that they tend to move back and forth along one wall of the double-sided T-maze. Furthermore, we found evidence for this wall following when re-analysing data from a previous study. We discuss potential explanations for this phenomenon, and its implications for study design.

The paper investigates the syntax and semantics of an indirect causative construction, ‘make’ causatives, in Sason Arabic with a focus on the syntax of the embedded structure and the status of the implicit embedded agent. On the basis of several diagnostics, the study demonstrates that ‘make’ embeds an agentive VoiceP, which also manifests an active-passive alternation despite the absence of any morphological reflex. Regarding the nature of the implicit embedded agent, the paper argues that it is present as a free variable à la Heim (1982) generated on the Voice head itself. In so doing, it adds to the ontology of null arguments as well as suggesting that licensing of a grammatical object is dissociated from the projection of a specifier.

Este artigo contempla o aspecto dinâmico que orienta e organiza as relações interpessoais em eventos microecológicos que Goffman (1979) chamou de footing e considera, também, o momento exato da alternância de turno que linguistas como Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974; 2003), Marcuschi (2003) e Couper-Kuhlen e Selting (2018) chamam de TRP (Lugar de Relevância para a Transição). O objetivo é verificar em dois arquivos de fala espontânea do C-ORAL-BRASIL I, “bfamcv02” e “bfamcv05”, se o TRP das TCUs (Unidades de Construção de Turno) constituídas nas falas em interação provoca mudanças de footing. Para alcançar este objetivo, elaborou-se uma interface entre a prosódia, Hirst e Di Cristo (1998), Bolinger (1986), Halliday (1967), Robert D. Ladd (2008 [1996]), Gumperz (1988) e Selting, (1995), e as perspectivas teóricas que melhor explicam a estruturação de uma interação falada: a Análise da Conversa, a Linguística Interacional e a Sociolinguística Interacional, Sacks, Schegloff e Jefferson (1974; 2003), Marcuschi (1988; 2003; 2008), Couper-Kuhlen e Selting (2018), Goffman (1972; 1974; 1798; 1981), Gumperz (1982; 1989) e Tannen e Wallat (1987). As análises foram realizadas, portanto, a partir de aspectos sociointeracionais e suprassegmentais e os resultados apontaram que o TRP verificado nas TCUs elaboradas nas duas situações comunicativas escolhidas para este artigo provoca mudanças de footing.

Lifestyle and heredity are two different terms but yet closely related components. An evaluation for the time invested in sleep and locomotion behaviors per second in the Wistar rats animal model was carried out. A total of six rats within the same cage were marked by color in a room supported by the day’s light (12h lighting/12h darkness). These animals were filmed for 18 h daily for ten days (9h lighting, 9h darkness) to estimate the time budget of sleep and locomotion behaviors and the temporal distribution taking into account the nature of this biological model’s activity. The results obtained reveal sleeping/locomotion cycles respecting the natural photoperiod except for a rat that shows dominance in nocturnal sleep compared to the rest of the rats. These advances support a change in photoperiodic behavior in response to an adaptation to the rhythm imposed by the manipulator. They invite studies on a larger sample to consolidate this behavior controlled by the environment.

In the past, the Webster optimal cycle time formula was limited to calculate the optimal cycle from historical data for fixed-time traffic signal control. This paper focuses on the design of an adaptive traffic signal control based on fuzzy logic with Webster and modified Webster’s formula. These formulas are used to calculate the optimal cycle time depending on the current traffic situation which applying in the next cycle. The alternation of the traffic condition between two successive cycles is monitored and handled through the fuzzy logic system to compensate the fluctuation. The obtained optimal cycle time is used to determine adaptively the effective phase green times i.e. is used to determine adaptively the maximum allowable extension limit of the green phase in the next cycle. The SUMO traffic simulator is used to compare the results of the proposed adaptive control methods with fuzzy logic-based traffic control, and fixed-time Webster and modified Webster-based traffic control methods. The proposed methods are tested on an isolated intersection. In this study, real field-collected data obtained from three, four, and five approaches intersections in Kilis/Turkey are used to test the performance of the proposed methods. In addition, to examine the efficiency of the proposed techniques at heavy demands, the arbitrary demands are generated by SUMO for a four approaches intersection. The obtained simulation results indicate that the proposed methods overperform the fixed time and fuzzy logic-based traffic control methods in terms of average vehicular delay, speed, and travel time.

We study alternating automata with qualitative semantics over infinite binary trees: Alternation means that two opposing players construct a decoration of the input tree called a run, and the qualitative semantics says that a run of the automaton is accepting if almost all branches of the run are accepting. In this article, we prove a positive and a negative result for the emptiness problem of alternating automata with qualitative semantics. The positive result is the decidability of the emptiness problem for the case of Büchi acceptance condition. An interesting aspect of our approach is that we do not extend the classical solution for solving the emptiness problem of alternating automata, which first constructs an equivalent non-deterministic automaton. Instead, we directly construct an emptiness game making use of imperfect information. The negative result is the undecidability of the emptiness problem for the case of co-Büchi acceptance condition. This result has two direct consequences: the undecidability of monadic second-order logic extended with the qualitative path-measure quantifier and the undecidability of the emptiness problem for alternating tree automata with non-zero semantics, a recently introduced probabilistic model of alternating tree automata.

Stem alternation is present in the verbal inflection of all documented Kiranti languages, where it ranges from the straightforward phonologically conditioned (e.g. Athpariya and Chintang) to the purely morphological and baroque (e.g. Khaling and Dumi). This paper surveys stem alternation patterns across the whole family. Its main finding is that, unlike the morphological stem alternations of West Kiranti, the phonologically-conditioned stem alternations of East Kiranti are characterized by a very striking distributional similarity (often identity) across languages, even in the presence of quite drastic affixal changes. This and other findings suggest that these stem alternation patterns should be regarded as a (morphomic) grammatical phenomenon of its own right, despite being derivable from the forms of suffixes. Furthermore, comparison with West Kiranti suggests that this coextensiveness with a coherent phonological environment actually enhances some typically morphomic traits such as diachronic resilience and productivity.

In different spelling systems, different grades of morpheme constancy can be found: German has a high degree of morpheme constancy (especially stem constancy, for example rennen – rennt both forms with ), while English has comparatively less (running – run, only the disyllabic form with ). This paper investigates the interaction between stems and verbal inflectional suffixes in terms of constancy in three Germanic languages (Dutch, English, German) and five Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish). Verbal inflection is always the most widespread inflection, so it is a well-defined area for getting an idea of how spelling systems may function. For the Germanic languages, this analysis will primarily focus on the alternation between monosyllabic and disyllabic forms. For the Romance languages, it will focus on the / -alternations in interaction with the following vowel. The aim is to describe a scale of morphological spelling: The alternation of and is not an instance of constancy, but of similarity, something between constancy and non-constancy. Morpheme constancy is no longer a binary feature. Comparing verbal inflection takes us another step towards the development of typological parameters for visible morphology.

This paper presents a technique for estimating the influences of channel bias on phonological typology. The technique, based on statistical bootstrapping, enables the estimation of historical probability, the probability that a synchronic alternation arises based on two diachronic factors: the number of sound changes required for an alternation to arise and their respective probabilities. I estimate historical probabilities of six attested and unattested alternations targeting the feature [voice], compare historical probabilities of these alternations, perform inferential statistics on the comparison and, to evaluate the performance of the channel bias approach, compare outputs of the diachronic model against the independently observed synchronic typology. The technique also identifies mismatches between the typological predictions of the analytic bias and channel bias approaches. By comparing these mismatches with the observed typology, this paper attempts to quantitatively evaluate the distinct contributions of the two influences on typology in a set of alternations targeting the feature [voice].

The present work investigates the effects of social constraints on word order variation in particle placement in Ontario English, Canada. While previous research has documented numerous linguistic factors conditioning the choice of variant, social correlates have so far remained unexplored. To address this gap, we analyze 6,047 variable phrasal verbs from the vernacular speech of six communities in Ontario. These data were coded for length of the direct object, verb semantics, community, and the individual's education, gender, age, and occupation. Our analyses confirm previous findings that variation in particle placement is predominantly determined by direct object length. However, we also expose significant social and geographic factors, and importantly an effect of age, with younger speakers using the joined variant more than older speakers. Further analysis confirms that the latter effect is consistent across communities, indicating a change in progress, possibly due to ongoing grammaticalization of particles in the verb phrase.

This paper investigates three types of dative-marking causative verbs in Korean: caused motion verbs, adversative passive verbs, and periphrastic causative verbs that unmarkedly select for dativeparticled NP. Caused motion verbs arguably entertain lexically-introduced causative features, adversative passives involve lexico-syntactically oriented causative and passive morpheme(s), periphrastic causative verbs involve a syntactically active causative component. We examined the processing aspects of these three types of verbs, adopting the event-related potential (ERP) paradigm of superior temporal resolution. We crucially employed the dative/ ACC alternation well-known in Korean syntax to come up with the potentially anomalous or marked experimental conditions. The results are: motion verbs and adversative passive verbs with ACC NP, relative to ones with DAT NP, recorded the bi-phasic ERP components: N400 and reduced P600. On the other hand, periphrastic causative verbs with ACC NP, compared to ones with DAT NP, registered only reduced P600. Taken together, only the syntactically-active causative component licences the ACC Case on the NP whose dative particle is dropped. Motion verbs and adversative passive verbs are taken to fail to complete semantic integration with the preceding ACC NP, therefore attempting to undergo syntactic reanalysis.

Action planning can be construed as the temporary binding of features of perceptual action effects. While previous research demonstrated binding for task-relevant, body-related effect features, the role of task-irrelevant or environment-related effect features in action planning is less clear. Here, we studied whether task-relevance or body-relatedness determines feature binding in action planning. Participants planned an action A, but before executing it initiated an intermediate action B. Each action relied on a body-related effect feature (index vs. middle finger movement) and an environment-related effect feature (cursor movement towards vs. away from a reference object). In Experiments 1 and 2, both effects were task-relevant. Performance in action B suffered from partial feature overlap with action A compared to full feature repetition or alternation, which is in line with binding of both features while planning action A. Importantly, this cost disappeared when all features were available but only body-related features were task-relevant (Experiment 3). When only the environment-related effect of action A was known in advance, action B benefitted when it aimed at the same (vs. a different) environment-related effect (Experiment 4). Consequently, the present results support the idea that task relevance determines whether binding of body-related and environment-related effect features takes place while the pre-activation of environment-related features without binding them primes feature-overlapping actions.

Moments of inattention to our surroundings may be essential to optimal cognitive functioning. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that humans spontaneously switch between two opposing attentional states during wakefulness—one in which we attend to the external environment (an “online” state) and one in which we disengage from the sensory environment to focus our attention internally (an “offline” state). We created a data-driven model of this proposed alternation between “online” and “offline” attentional states in humans, on a seconds-level timescale. Participants (n = 34) completed a sustained attention to response task while undergoing simultaneous high-density EEG and pupillometry recording and intermittently reporting on their subjective experience. “Online” and “offline” attentional states were initially defined using a cluster analysis applied to multimodal measures of (1) EEG spectral power, (2) pupil diameter, (3) RT, and (4) self-reported subjective experience. We then developed a classifier that labeled trials as belonging to the online or offline cluster with >95% accuracy, without requiring subjective experience data. This allowed us to classify all 5-sec trials in this manner, despite the fact that subjective experience was probed on only a small minority of trials. We report evidence of statistically discriminable “online” and “offline” states matching the hypothesized characteristics. Furthermore, the offline state strongly predicted memory retention for one of two verbal learning tasks encoded immediately prior. Together, these observations suggest that seconds-timescale alternation between online and offline states is a fundamental feature of wakefulness and that this may serve a memory processing function.

Voicing alternation is a linguistic terminology which is mainly discussed in phonology and morphology. Although it is a very potential research topic in linguistics, no comprehensive research has been found to investigate this area from Bengali language context. At present, it has been analyzed in different language perspectives. The purpose of the study is to know the phonological features of voicing alternations in the language of Bengali children. Simultaneously, this study actually attempts to assess the capacity of using voicing alternations. This thesis is mainly concerned with the acquisition of voicing alternation which is found in different morpho-phonemic contexts. In order to reveal the nature of voicing alternations of Bengali children, a qualitative research method was applied to collect and analyze the data. The result of this dissertation has been explored by collecting data from the participants through semi structured interview method because it is a highly flexible technique to collect qualitative data. Eighteen Bengali children were interviewed. The most common finding is that the production of voicing alternations even in known words remains difficult until at least 30 months of age in the speech of Bengali children. On the other hand, Bengali-learning children are able to produce voicing alternations earlier who have more MLU than their age. However, results indicated that the tendency of using voicing alternations increases with age. A study on the acquisition of voicing alternations has become an important part of study in the department of Linguistics. So this study may play an important role in this field of linguistics as it focuses on the phonological features of voicing alternations in the language of Bengali children. However, this research can be helpful for the students of Linguistics department. This study also contributes to the knowledge of those who are willing to conduct similar researches in the area.

Morphologically conditioned phonology, where a particular phonological alternation or requirement holds only for a subset of lexical items or in a subset of morphological contexts, is well documented. This paper expands on the literature by examining phonological alternations where two independent triggering morphemes must both be present for a phonological alternation to apply. Several cases of doubly morphologically conditioned phonological alternations, from a diverse set of languages, are described. The existence of morphologically conditioned phonology with two triggers informs our models of the interface between morphology and phonology, in that phonological operations must be able to reference the presence of more than one morpheme simultaneously. A range of possible analyses are considered, including those set in Stratal OT, Indexed Constraint Theory, Cophonology Theory and Cophonologies by Phase Theory. A Cophonologies by Phase account is found to be optimal, where multiple morpheme-specific phonological requirements accumulate and co-trigger alternations within a single spell-out domain.

There is evidence that orthographic knowledge can influence on-line spoken-word recognition. Interestingly, when graphic and phonetic codes are not congruent due to the application of phonological alternation processes, people report hearing sounds that are matched to graphic (underlying), not phonetic codes (Hallé et al. in J Mem Lang 43:618-639, 2000). It is, however, not known whether the same effect arises in the processing of a non-native language (L2). In the present study, advanced Mandarin learners of Korean as well as native Korean listeners performed a phoneme monitoring task using words undergoing obstruent nasalization in Korean. The results showed that orthographic information dominated the phonetic judgments of the native Korean listeners, while the Mandarin learners' judgments relied more on the phonetic input. These results suggest that even the lexical access of highly experienced L2 learners differs from that of native speakers and that advanced learners still have difficulty employing orthographic information to access the L2 lexicon.

Este texto tem por objetivo mostrar que sufixos de duas faces se distinguem em diferentes categorias que vão da alternância lexical à morfofonológica ou simplesmente alternância fonológica. Discutem-se: -or/dor, como sufixo de uma face só -ivo introduzido como argumento; ão/são, -dade/idade como sufixos de duas faces; ɛl/vel, sufixos diferentes com propriedades fonológicas em distribuição complementar. O ciclo fonológico tem o seu lugar. Outros sufixos são chamados como argumento. A análise situa-se na morfofonologia com ênfase na fonologia, isto é, no processo derivacional em que regras fonológicas operam. A base da derivação é o particípio passado ou o tema verbal. E os sufixos são caracterizados em termos de localidade, lugar de inserção na palavra. O ciclo fonológico também tem o seu lugar. A análise fundamenta-se na teoria autossegmental e no modelo de derivação sincrônica. Todos os sufixos em estudo estão presentes na gramática sincrônica. O que se apresenta neste estudo é um novo olhar sobre eles.

Trajectory-dependent splitter neurons in the hippocampus encode information about a rodent’s prior trajectory during performance of a continuous alternation task. As such, they provide valuable information for supporting memory-guided behavior. Here, we employed single-photon calcium imaging in freely moving mice to investigate the emergence and fate of trajectory-dependent activity through learning and mastery of a continuous spatial alternation task. In agreement with others, the quality of trajectory-dependent information in hippocampal neurons correlated with task performance. We thus hypothesized that, due to their utility, splitter neurons would exhibit heightened stability. We find that splitter neurons were more likely to remain active and retained more consistent spatial information across multiple days than other neurons. Furthermore, we find that both splitter neurons and place cells emerged rapidly and maintained stable trajectory-dependent/spatial activity thereafter. Our results suggest that neurons with useful functional coding exhibit heightened stability to support memory guided behavior., Trajectory-coding neurons in the hippocampus convey important information for performing memory tasks. Here, Kinsky et al. track long-term neural activity in the hippocampus to find that trajectory-coding emerges rapidly and remains stable across long time-scales.

While a growing body of research investigates the influence of orthographic input on the acquisition of second language (L2) segmental contrasts, few studies have examined its influence on the acquisition of L2 phonological processes. Hayes-Harb, Brown, and Smith (2018) showed that exposure to words’ written forms caused native English speakers to misremember the voicing of final obstruents in German-like words exemplifying voicing neutralization. However, they did not examine participants’ acquisition of the final devoicing process. To address this gap, we conducted two experiments wherein native English speakers (assigned to Orthography or No Orthography groups) learned German-like words in suffixed and unsuffixed forms, and later completed a picture naming test. Experiment 1 investigated learners’ knowledge of the surface voicing of obstruents in both final and nonfinal position, and revealed that while all participants produced underlyingly voiced obstruents as voiceless more often in final than nonfinal position, the difference was only significant for No Orthography participants. Experiment 2 investigated participants’ ability to apply the devoicing process to new words, and provided no evidence of generalization. Together these findings shed light on the acquisition of final devoicing by naïve adult learners, as well as the influence of orthographic input in the acquisition of a phonological alternation.

In spite of the widespread opinion about the negative effect of chaos on the nature and human life, there exist examples of its constructive role in various processes. Among them, a prominent position is occupied by the processes in which thermal noise causes not only Brownian motion but also drift of nanoparticles as a result of unbiased non-equilibrium perturbations of various nature in systems with broken spatial and/or temporal symmetry. Such processes are relevant to the operation of Brownian motors, or ratchets, actively studied in the past decades. In the present paper, the working principles of systems of this kind are explained based on the author’s approach which unifies the treatment of different ratchet effect manifestations in the models of fluctuating potential, catalytic wheel, and electroconformational coupling. Another manifestation of this effect is provided by the paradoxical games proposed by Parrondo in which chaos appears in random tosses of a die and the ratchet effect arises from a certain alternation of game strategies ensuring an average win. The paper presents the simplest version of Parrondo’s game; it consists in the alternation of two antisymmetric games, with the rules depending on the parity of the capital possessed by the player before the next toss. The dependence of the average win on the number of tosses is calculated by computer simulation and compared with the result of the catalytic wheel model valid in the adiabatic approximation. The theoretical win calculated by this model agrees well with the numerical simulation result for the game concerned. The attractiveness of the treatment of the ratchet effect in terms of game theory stems from the possibility to visualize the theoretical framework and to study the laws of Brownian motor operation by simple modelling methods.

Unpredictable crises such as pandemics, as well as predictable oscillations such as seasonality, can produce significant demand fluctuations. Although it is possible to adapt the manufacturing system to these perturbations, there are significant opportunities in anticipating them in the design stage. This paper proposes the Economically Robust Assembly Line Balancing Problem (ERALBP), which addresses the issue by designing assembly lines to allow flexible alternation between two or more cycle times. A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is introduced to describe the problem. Moreover, a heuristic procedure is implemented in order to quickly produce high-quality solutions. While the model failed to find solutions for most medium and large instances, the heuristic quickly produced high-quality solutions, reaching low solution gaps even for large instances. Finally, a case study with industrial data further highlights the advantages of the proposed strategy: by anticipating demand fluctuations, the proposed heuristic’s solution facilitates alternation between two demand scenarios, both with the optimal number of stations. This approach is less costly than the re-balancing alternative, which requires re-assigning and re-positioning tasks. By enabling companies to perform this fast switching between output rates, we allow them to benefit from economic opportunities tied to increased seasonal effects or unexpected demand spikes.

The hippocampus has been linked to memory encoding and spatial navigation, while the prefrontal cortex is associated with cognitive functions such as decision-making. These regions are hypothesized to communicate in tasks that demand both spatial navigation and decision-making processes. However, the electrophysiological signatures underlying this communication remain to be better elucidated. To investigate the dynamics of the hippocampal-prefrontal interactions, we have analyzed their local field potentials and spiking activity recorded from rats performing a spatial alternation task on a figure eight-shaped maze. We found that the phase coherence of theta peaked around the choice point area of the maze. Moreover, Granger causality revealed a hippocampus → prefrontal cortex directionality of information flow at theta frequency, peaking at starting areas of the maze, and on the reverse direction at delta frequency, peaking near the turn onset. Additionally, the patterns of phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling within and between the regions also showed spatial selectivity, and hippocampal theta and prefrontal delta modulated not only gamma amplitude but also inter-regional gamma synchrony. Finally, we found that the theta rhythm dynamically modulated neurons in both regions, with the highest modulation at the choice area; interestingly, prefrontal cortex neurons were more strongly modulated by the hippocampal theta rhythm than by their local field rhythm. In all, our results reveal maximum electrophysiological interactions between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex near the decision-making period of the spatial alternation task, corroborating the hypothesis that a dynamic interplay between these regions takes place during spatial decisions.

Although the generation of movements is a fundamental function of the nervous system, the underlying neural principles remain unclear. Since flexor- and extensor-muscles alternate during rhythmic movements like walking, it is often assumed that the responsible neural circuitry is similarly displaying alternating activity. Here, we present ensemble-recordings of neurons in the lumbar spinal cord that indicate that, rather than alternating, the population is performing a low-dimensional “rotation” in neural space, in which the neural activity is cycling through all phases continuously during the rhythmic behavior. The radius of rotation correlates with the intended muscle force and a perturbation of the low-dimensional trajectory can modify the motor behavior. Since existing models of spinal motor control offer an inadequate explanation of rotation, we propose a new theory of neural generation of movements from which this and other unresolved issues, such as speed regulation, force control, and multi-functionalism, are readily explained.

Our study focuses on morpho-syntactic complexity, trying to identify the specific subordinated modalities of organizing and packaging information in a narration. This purpose will be achieved by combining the morpho-syntactic analysis with the type of contents that subordinate clauses convey with respect to the informational flux of textual structure (foreground vs. background alternation). A functionalist and enunciative framework is adopted. The following questions will be addressed: (1) which types of morpho-syntactic structures – main or subordinated, finite or non finite – are exploited to convey the subordinated contents selected? (2) do the informants tend to hierarchize the expressed contents? (3) which types of semantic and/or logical components (temporality, causality, etc.) are selected to be narrated and highlighted through subordination? We shall demonstrate that only the interaction of several factors – core morphological facts, interactional and discourse habits – can exhaustively explain the textual perspectives observed in our L1 and L2 data, with interesting consequences for second language acquisition.

Humans and other animals tend to repeat or alternate their previous choices, even when judging sensory stimuli presented in a random sequence. It is unclear if and how sensory, associative, and motor cortical circuits produce these idiosyncratic behavioral biases. Here, we combined behavioral modeling of a visual perceptual decision with magnetoencephalographic (MEG) analyses of neural dynamics, across multiple regions of the human cerebral cortex. We identified distinct history-dependent neural signals in motor and posterior parietal cortex. Gamma-band activity in parietal cortex tracked previous choices in a sustained fashion, and biased evidence accumulation toward choice repetition; sustained beta-band activity in motor cortex inversely reflected the previous motor action, and biased the accumulation starting point toward alternation. The parietal, not motor, signal mediated the impact of previous on current choice and reflected individual differences in choice repetition. In sum, parietal cortical signals seem to play a key role in shaping choice sequences.

Some images evoke bistable percepts: two different visual experiences seen in alternation while continuously viewing an unchanged stimulus. The Necker Cube and Rubin's Vase are classic examples, each of which gives alternating percepts of different shapes. Other bistable percepts are alternating colors or directions of motion. Although stimuli that result in salient bistability are rare and sometimes cleverly constructed to emphasize ambiguity, they have been influential for over 150 years, since the work of von Helmholtz, who considered them to be evidence for perceptual visual processes that interpret retinal stimuli. While bistability in natural viewing is uncommon, the main point of this review is that implicit ambiguity in visual neural representations is pervasive. Resolving ambiguity, therefore, is a fundamental and ubiquitous process of vision that routinely affects what we see, not an oddity arising from cleverly crafted images. This review focuses on the causes of widespread ambiguity, historical perspectives on it, and modern knowledge and theory about resolving it.

Mind wandering occurs when spontaneous thought generation is increased while cognitive control is decreased, presumably in response to antagonistic effects of default mode- (DMN) and goal-directed network (GDN) activity. Previous studies assumed that DMN or GDN activity manifests in behavior with minimal delays and has rigid effects, i.e., DMN always facilitates generation of spontaneous thought and inhibits cognitive control. With those static response functions, the antagonism of DMN and GDN could explain the alternation of task focused and mind wandering states. But it rules out others, such as multi-tasking, where spontaneous thought and cognitive control are both increased, or rumination, where both are decreased. However, shifts from task focused to mind wandering have been shown to occur via a multi-tasking state. We therefore propose dynamic response functions, allowing delay or reversal of DMN and GDN effects. Dynamic response functions enabled us to stochastically predict mind wandering up to at least 30 min in advance from EEG measures of DMN and GDN activity in a tone counting task. Experimental results show both considerable delays and switches between task-positive and negative effects. Mind wandering was initiated by a barrage of DMN activity more than 20 minutes prior a report of mind wandering, directing the mental focus inward. Critically, facilitation of spontaneous thoughts occurred several minutes prior to the report. These thoughts sustained up to 10 min, after which a rebound to task-focused behavior was effectuated, notably without intervention from the GDN. Repeated GDN interventions, however, secured a basic level of task performance.

Although phonological alternation is prevalent in languages, the process of perceiving phonologically alternated sounds is poorly understood, especially at the neurolinguistic level. We examined the process of perceiving Mandarin 3rd tone sandhi (T3 + T3 → T2 + T3) with a mismatch negativity (MMN) experiment. Our design has two independent variables (whether the deviant undergoes tone sandhi; whether the standard and the deviant have matched underlying tone). These two independent variables modulated ERP responses in both the first and the second syllables. Notably, despite the apparent segmental conflict between the standard and the deviant in all conditions, MMN is only observed when neither the standard nor the deviant undergoes tone sandhi, suggesting that discovering the underlying representation of an alternated sound could interfere with the generation of MMN. A tentative model with three hypothesized underlying processing mechanisms is proposed to explain the observed latency and amplitude differences across conditions. The results are also discussed in light of the potential electrophysiological signatures involved in the process of perceiving alternated sounds.

Due to the state-space explosion problem, efficient verification of real-world programs in large scale is still a big challenge. Particularly, thread alternation makes the verification of concurrent programs much more difficult since it aggravates this problem. In this paper, an application of Craig interpolation, namely conditional interpolation, is proposed to work together with CEGAR-based approach to reduce the state-space of concurrent tasks. Specifically, conditional interpolation is formalized to confine the reachable region of states so that infeasible conditional branches could be pruned. Furthermore, the generated conditional interpolants are utilized to shorten the interpolation paths, which makes the time consumed for verification significantly reduced. We have implemented the proposed approach on top of an open-source software model checker. Empirical results show that the conditional interpolation is effective in improving the verification efficiency of concurrent tasks.