scholarly journals Nordic Word Order Database: Motivations, methods, material and infrastructure

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Lundquist ◽  
Ida Larsson ◽  
Maud Westendorp ◽  
Eirik Tengesdal ◽  
Anders Nøklestad

In this article, we present the Nordic Word Order Database (NWD), with a focus on the rationale behind it, the methods used in data elicitation, data analysis and the empirical scope of the database. NWD is an online database with a user-friendly search interface, hosted by The Text Laboratory at the University of Oslo, launched in April 2019 (https://tekstlab.uio.no/nwd). It contains elicited production data from speakers of all of the North Germanic languages, including several different dialects. So far, 7 fieldtrips have been conducted, and data from altogether around 250 participants (age 16–60) have been collected (approx. 55 000 sentences in total). The data elicitation is carried out through a carefully controlled production experiment that targets core syntactic phenomena that are known to show variation within and/or between the North Germanic languages, e.g., subject placement, object placement, particle placement and verb placement. In this article, we present the motivations and research questions behind the database, as well as a description of the experiment, the data collection procedure, and the structure of the database

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silviu-Marian Miloiu ◽  
Elena Dragomir

Volume 6, issue no. 2 (2014) of Revista Română de Studii Baltice și Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies is dedicated to the publication of selected papers of Fifth annual international conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies in Romania: A piece of culture, a culture of peace, re-imaging European communities in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions, which was held in Târgoviște, Romania, between 17-19 August 2014, as part of the project “A piece of culture, a culture of peace” (CoolPeace) and a follow-up to the summer school of Nordic and Baltic Studies. Financed under the measure “inter-institutional cooperation projects” of the EEA grants, the project was designed to strengthen the institutional cooperation at the level of higher education sector between all the partners involved: Valahia University of Târgoviște as the Project Promoter, the University of Agder, the University of Oslo, the Embassy of Lithuania in Romania, Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania and the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies. The Programme Operator of the EEA Scholarship Programme in Romania is ANPCDEFP (the National Agency for Community Programmes in the Field of Education and Vocational Training). The embassies of Finland and Norway in Romania were cultural partners in this endeavour. The aim of the conference was to investigate various types of potential conventional and non-conventional threats in Europe which could emerge from poverty, exclusion, competition for resources, weak institutions, ideological views, perceptions of the other or lack of knowledge about the other. Our continent also seems under constant (perceived) threats related to terrorism, energy, Russia’s relations with Europe or weapons of mass destructions. Despite many difficulties and constraints, there is justified hope to move from a culture of (perceived) threat to a culture of peace. While politicians stress that one should be prepared to respond to threats and security challenges, and that society should not make the fatal mistake of minimizing the many (potential) dangers that Europe faces today, scientists, artists, historians, linguists etc. argue that peace can and should be preserved through collaboration with the other, through promoting knowledge about the other, through the study of past experiences, through promoting pieces of the other’s culture. This conference focused on intercultural dialogue and forms of cooperation between state and non-state entities, between intra-cultural entities, between different communities.


Author(s):  
Daryl A. Cornish ◽  
George L. Smit

Oreochromis mossambicus is currently receiving much attention as a candidater species for aquaculture programs within Southern Africa. This has stimulated interest in its breeding cycle as well as the morphological characteristics of the gonads. Limited information is available on SEM and TEM observations of the male gonads. It is known that the testis of O. mossambicus is a paired, intra-abdominal structure of the lobular type, although further details of its characteristics are not known. Current investigations have shown that spermatids reach full maturity some two months after the female becomes gravid. Throughout the year, the testes contain spermatids at various stages of development although spermiogenesis appears to be maximal during November when spawning occurs. This paper describes the morphological and ultrastructural characteristics of the testes and spermatids.Specimens of this fish were collected at Syferkuil Dam, 8 km north- west of the University of the North over a twelve month period, sacrificed and the testes excised.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (62) ◽  
pp. 66-81
Author(s):  
Adriana M. Moreno Moreno ◽  
Eduar Fernando Aguirre González

Social Responsibility is a concept that has been approached from different perspectives by theoreticians and institutions. Initially, this was limited exclusively to companies, however, the creation of the Social Capital, Ethics and Development Initiative by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) sought to make educational institutions aware that, like any other organization, they are responsible for the externalities they generate in their environment and their stakeholders. This research approaches the concept of University Social Responsibility (USR) from the scheme proposed by the IDB, which proposes four axes of action for Universities’ CR: Responsible Campus, Professional and Citizen Training, Social Management of Knowledge and Social Participation. The Universidad del Valle has a strategic plan entitled “Universidad del Valle’s Strategic Development Plan” and Regionalization attached thereto. It has also developed its action plan and in the five strategic issues raised herein, its socially responsible approach is clearly identifiable. The North Cauca Facility wherein this study is being developed, even though it does not have a University Social Responsibility Management Model, has attempted to align its practices with its strategic affairs that broadly conform to the four axes proposed by the IDB. This research addresses a relevant and current issue inasmuch as it proposes to develop a diagnosis on the relationship between the four axes of Social Responsibility proposed by the IDB and the practice of Social Responsibility applied at the Universidad del Valle, North Cauca Facility, for the period 2014-2015. In order to answer the research problem, a qualitative, exploratory and descriptive type of study is used, given that the work was based on the documentary information available at the University, while the interviews with the directors of the Institution are used as a tool for oral history. The research method used is the case study, which allows to address a unit of analysis in depth, in this case the USR within the Universidad del Valle, North Cauca Facility.


Author(s):  
Eric Fuß

This chapter discusses a set of theoretical approaches to the OV/VO alternation in Early German (with an emphasis on OHG), focusing on the question of whether it is possible to identify a basic serialization pattern that underlies the ‘mixed’ word order properties found at the syntactic surface. Based on a review of a set of OV/VO diagnostics, including for example the placement of elements that resist extraposition, properties of verbal complexes, and the significance of deviations from the source text in translations, it is argued that—despite some notable exceptions—OHG exhibits a more consistent verb-final nature than other Early Germanic languages (OE, in particular). This conclusion is supported by the observation that OV qualifies as the unmarked surface word order, which is compatible with a larger set of pragmatic contexts.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 830
Author(s):  
William E. Lewis ◽  
Timothy L. Olander ◽  
Christopher S. Velden ◽  
Christopher Rozoff ◽  
Stefano Alessandrini

Accurate, reliable estimates of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity are a crucial element in the warning and forecast process worldwide, and for the better part of 50 years, estimates made from geostationary satellite observations have been indispensable to forecasters for this purpose. One such method, the Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT), was used to develop analog ensemble (AnEn) techniques that provide more precise estimates of TC intensity with instant access to information on the reliability of the estimate. The resulting methods, ADT-AnEn and ADT-based Error Analog Ensemble (ADTE-AnEn), were trained and tested using seventeen years of historical ADT intensity estimates using k-fold cross-validation with 10 folds. Using only two predictors, ADT-estimated current intensity (maximum wind speed) and TC center latitude, both AnEn techniques produced significant reductions in mean absolute error and bias for all TC intensity classes in the North Atlantic and for most intensity classes in the Eastern Pacific. The ADTE-AnEn performed better for extreme intensities in both basins (significantly so in the Eastern Pacific) and will be incorporated in the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (UW-CIMSS) workflow for further testing during operations in 2021.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Arno Pronk ◽  
Peng Luo ◽  
Qingpeng Li ◽  
Fred Sanders ◽  
Marjolein overtoom ◽  
...  

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Shuochao Yao ◽  
Jinyang Li ◽  
Dongxin Liu ◽  
Tianshi Wang ◽  
Shengzhong Liu ◽  
...  

Future mobile and embedded systems will be smarter and more user-friendly. They will perceive the physical environment, understand human context, and interact with end-users in a human-like fashion. Daily objects will be capable of leveraging sensor data to perform complex estimation and recognition tasks, such as recognizing visual inputs, understanding voice commands, tracking objects, and interpreting human actions. This raises important research questions on how to endow low-end embedded and mobile devices with the appearance of intelligence despite their resource limitations.


2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNETTE LYKKNES ◽  
LISE KVITTINGEN ◽  
ANNE KRISTINE BØØRRESEN

ABSTRACT Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968) became Norway's first authority of radioactivity and the country's second female professor. After several years in international centers of radiochemistry, Gleditsch returned to Norway, becoming associate professor and later full professor of chemistry. Between 1916 and 1946 Gleditsch tried to establish a laboratory of radiochemistry at the University of Oslo, a career which included network building, grant applications, travels abroad, committee work, research, teaching, supervision, popularization, and war resistance work. Establishing a new field was demanding; only under her student, Alexis Pappas, was her field institutionalized at Oslo. This paper presents Gleditsch's everyday life at the Chemistry Department, with emphasis on her formation of a research and teaching laboratory of radiochemistry. Her main scientific work during this period is presented and discussed, including atomic weight determination of chlorine, age calculations in minerals, the hunt for actinium's ancestor and investigations on 40K.


1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Bennett

It will be suggested in this article that Slovene, a South Slavonic language, is on the way to acquiring verb-second (V2) word order. In providing evidence in support of this view I shall compare Slovene, on the one hand, with the closely related language Serbo-Croat and, on the other hand, with relevant details from the history of the Germanic languages. The point of comparing it with Serbo-Croat is to discover the respects in which the word order of these two languages has diverged. Taken together with what is known about the word order of Common Slavonic, the facts emerging from this comparison allow us to identify one major respect in which Slovene has changed and two respects in which it is still changing. At the same time, they reveal a major respect in which Serbo-Croat word order is also changing. The point of comparing Slovene with the Germanic languages is twofold. First, since all the present-day Germanic languages either have or have had V2 word order (Haiman, 1974), it is possible that their history can help us to understand the changes currently taking place in Slovene and to predict how Slovene might change in the future. Secondly, where details of the history of the Germanic languages are poorly understood, the possibility exists of gaining fresh insight into them in the light of the changes that have taken place more recently, or indeed are still taking place, in Slovene. In this connection we shall assess the plausibility of two theories concerning the adoption of V2 word order by the Germanic languages, those of Vennemann (1975) and Wackernagel (1892).


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 695-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carmen Parafita Couto ◽  
Marianne Gullberg

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This study aims to improve our understanding of common switching patterns by examining determiner–noun–adjective complexes in code-switching (CS) in three language pairs (Welsh–English, Spanish–English and Papiamento–Dutch). The languages differ in gender and noun–adjective word order in the noun phrase (NP): (a) Spanish, Welsh, and Dutch have gender; English and Papiamento do not; (b) Spanish, Welsh, and Papiamento prefer post-nominal adjectives; Dutch and English, prenominal ones. We test predictions on determiner language and adjective order derived from generativist accounts and the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) approach. Design/methodology/approach: We draw on three publicly available spoken corpora. For the purposes of these analyses, we re-coded all three datasets identically. From the three re-coded corpora we extracted all monolingual and mixed simplex NPs (DetN) and complex NPs with determiners (determiner–adjective–noun (DetAN/NA)). We then examined the surrounding clause for each to determine the matrix language based on the finite verb. Data and analysis: We analysed the data using a linear regression model in R statistical software to examine the distribution of languages across word class and word order in the corpora. Findings/conclusions: Overall, the generativist predictions are borne out regarding adjective positions but not determiners and the MLF accounts for more of the data. We explore extra-linguistic explanations for the patterns observed. Originality: The current study has provided new empirical data on nominal CS from language pairs not previously considered. Significance/implications: This study has revealed robust patterns across three corpora and taken a step towards disentangling two theoretical accounts. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of comparing multiple language pairs using similar coding.


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