Ambiguity Avoidance by Means of Function Words in English? Providing Additional Corpus-based Counterevidence

The present paper considers three types of constructions where optional function words have been claimed to be used primarily for the purpose of avoiding a global or local attachment ambiguity. a) In the absence of the complementiser in that-clauses, certain subject NPs might be (temporarily) misconstrued as direct objects of the superordinate verb. b) In the absence of the complementiser that, certain adverbials might be (wrongly) assigned to the subordinate or the superordinate clause. c) In the absence of a relativiser, certain combinations of the antecedent NP and the relative clause subject might be (temporarily) misconstrued as forming a single NP. The paper uses two corpus-based testing procedures to refute these claims. (i) Analysing otherwise comparable ambiguity-free and ambiguity-prone structures in a)–c) we find that they involve similar rates of function word use. (ii) Moreover, it is shown that a variety of other ambiguity-free constructions, containing the same or other optional grammatical markers, display similar distributional profiles.

THE EFFECT OF METAL ALLOY MICROSTRUCTURE ON THE THICKNESS DISTRIBUTION IN THE CIRCULAR PLATE UNDER THE SUPERPLASTIC BLOW-FORMING

The gas-blow forming of sheet specimens under the superplastic conditions is the widespread and intensive developing technological method for metal-forming of modern alloys (mainly on the aluminium and titanium base). The investigation of evolution of the microstructure parameters in the deformation process is necessary to obtain the defect-free constructions with required mechanical properties. In thepresent paper the blow-forming process of the thin circular plate to the hemispherical form is modelled. The stress-strain relations used include the parameters of the grain size and of the hardening depending on theaccumulated plastic strain. It is shown that taking into account the evolution of the microstructure parameters in the superplastic deformation can significantly improve the estimation of the optimal characteristics of the manufacturing process and eventually can provide the most thickness-uniform engineering product.

Issues on the Translation of Certain English Collocations into Arabic: From Collocations to Free Constructions in the Target Language

The translation of collocations between different languages is not always an easy task, but can at times be a problematic and a challenging practice amongst linguists and translators/interpreters. The present paper argues that the translation of English collocations into Arabic can be a flexible practice if Arabic possesses the equivalent collocation while the literal meaning of the whole English collocation is intended. The translator can still find an appropriate equivalent collocation in Arabic, even if the literal meaning of the first word in the English collocation is not intended. This, however, requires the translator to find a word in Arabic that conveys the intended meaning of the word in English and collocates with the other Arabic word simultaneously. The paper also claims that the translator may resort to make use of a free construction in Arabic to stand for the English collocation concerned. This often takes place if Arabic does not possess an equivalent collocation to the English collocation as the literal meaning of the latter is not the intended meaning, the verbs in the former and the latter differ in terms of type and function and/or the verb in the former can convey the intended meaning of the whole English collocation.

Conway and iteration hemirings Part 1

Conway hemirings are Conway semirings without a multiplicative unit. We also define iteration hemirings as Conway hemirings satisfying certain identities associated with the finite groups. Iteration hemirings are iteration semirings without a multiplicative unit. We provide an analysis of the relationship between Conway hemirings and (partial) Conway semirings and describe several free constructions. In the second part of the paper we define and study hemimodules of Conway and iteration hemirings, and show their applicability in the analysis of quantitative aspects of the infinitary behavior of weighted transition systems. These include discounted and average computations of weights investigated recently.