Pragmatic, linguistic and cognitive factors in young children's development of quantity, relevance and word learning inferences

To better understand the developmental trajectory of children's pragmatic development, studies that examine more than one type of implicature as well as associated linguistic and cognitive factors are required. We investigated three- to five-year-old English-speaking children's (N = 71) performance in ad hoc quantity, scalar quantity and relevance implicatures, as well as word learning by exclusion inferences, using a sentence-to-picture-matching story-based task. Children's pragmatic abilities improved with age, with word learning by exclusion acquired first, followed by relevance and ad hoc quantity implicatures, and finally scalar quantity implicatures. In an exploratory analysis (with a subset of the data N = 58), we found that structural language knowledge was a predictor of pragmatic performance (but no evidence for an association with socioeconomic status or Theory of Mind, controlling for structural language). We discuss reasons why this developmental pattern emerges with reference to linguistic and extra-linguistic properties of these inferences.

The energy flux of three-dimensional waves in the atmosphere: Exact expression for a basic model diagnosis with no equatorial gap

A model diagnosis for the energy flux of off-equatorial Rossby waves in the atmosphere has previously been done using quasi-geostrophic equations and is singular at the equator. The energy flux of equatorial waves has been separately investigated in previous studies using a space-time spectral analysis or a ray theory. A recent analytical study has derived an exact universal expression for the energy flux which can indicate the direction of the group velocity for linear shallow water waves at all latitudes. This analytical result is extended in the present study to a height-dependent framework for three-dimensional waves in the atmosphere. This is achieved by investigating the classical analytical solution of both equatorial and off-equatorial waves in a Boussinesq fluid. For the horizontal component of the energy flux, the same expression has been obtained between equatorial waves and off-equatorial waves in the height-dependent framework, which is linked to a scalar quantity inverted from the isentropic perturbation of Ertel’s potential vorticity. The expression of the vertical component of the energy flux requires computation of another scalar quantity that may be obtained from the meridional integral of geopotential anomaly in a wavenumber-frequency space. The exact version of the universal expression is explored and illustrated for three-dimensional waves induced by an idealized Madden-Julian Oscillation forcing in a basic model experiment. The zonal and vertical fluxes manifest the energy transfer of both equatorial Kelvin waves and off-equatorial Rossby waves with a smooth transition at around 10°S and around 10°N. The meridional flux of wave energy represents connection between off-equatorial divergence regions and equatorial convergence regions.

A Review of Matrix SIR Arino Epidemic Models

Many of the models used nowadays in mathematical epidemiology, in particular in COVID-19 research, belong to a certain subclass of compartmental models whose classes may be divided into three “(x,y,z)” groups, which we will call respectively “susceptible/entrance, diseased, and output” (in the classic SIR case, there is only one class of each type). Roughly, the ODE dynamics of these models contains only linear terms, with the exception of products between x and y terms. It has long been noticed that the reproduction number R has a very simple Formula in terms of the matrices which define the model, and an explicit first integral Formula is also available. These results can be traced back at least to Arino, Brauer, van den Driessche, Watmough, and Wu (2007) and to Feng (2007), respectively, and may be viewed as the “basic laws of SIR-type epidemics”. However, many papers continue to reprove them in particular instances. This motivated us to redraw attention to these basic laws and provide a self-contained reference of related formulas for (x,y,z) models. For the case of one susceptible class, we propose to use the name SIR-PH, due to a simple probabilistic interpretation as SIR models where the exponential infection time has been replaced by a PH-type distribution. Note that to each SIR-PH model, one may associate a scalar quantity Y(t) which satisfies “classic SIR relations”, which may be useful to obtain approximate control policies.

Manner implicatures and how to spot them

The goal of this paper is to help develop a general picture of conversational implicature (Grice, 1975) by looking beyond scalar implicature to see how the phenomenon behaves in a general sense. I focus on non-scalar Quantity implicatures and Manner implicatures. I review canonical examples of Manner implicature, as well as a more recent, productive one involving gradable adjective antonym pairs (Rett, 2015). Based on these data, I argue that Manner implicatures—and conversational implicatures generally—are distinguishable primarily by their calculability; their reinforceability; their discourse sensitivity (to the Question Under Discussion; Roberts, 1990; van Kuppevelt, 1995; Simons et al., 2011); and their embeddability (under negation, propositional attitude verbs, quantifiers, etc.). I use these data to draw conclusions about the usefulness of implicature-specific operators and about ways to compositionally represent conversational implicatures.

Tensor Analysis of the Relative Permeability in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

Summary Fluid evidence shows that prediction of water breakthrough and oil recovery from fractured reservoirs cannot be performed accurately without upscaled relative permeability functions. Relative permeability is commonly assumed to be a scalar quantity, although the justification of that—specifically for naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs)—is rarely attempted. In this study, we investigate the validity of this scalar-quantity assumption and how it affects fracture/matrix equivalent relative permeabilities, kri(Sw), achieved by a numerical simulation of unsteady-state waterflooding of discrete-fracture/matrix models (DFMs). Numerical determination of relative permeability requires a realistic model, a spatially adaptive simulation approach, and a sophisticated analysis procedure. To fulfil these requirements, we apply the discrete-fracture/matrix modeling to well-characterized outcrop analogs at the hectometer to kilometer scale. These models are parameterized with aperture and capillary entry pressure data, taking into account variations from fracture segment to segment, trying to emulate in-situ conditions. The finite-element-centered finite-volume method is used to simulate two-phase flow in the fractured rock, while also considering a range of wettability conditions from water-wet to oil-wet. Our results indicate that the fracture/matrix equivalent relative permeability is a weakly anisotropic property. The tensors are not necessarily symmetric, and the absolute-permeability tensor is the most influential factor, determining the level of anisotropy of kri. The anisotropy ratio (AR) changes with saturation, is influenced by the fracture/matrix-interface wetted area (Awf), and differs for each phase. In addition, the diagonal terms of the equivalent relative permeability tensor (krii), determined using our novel approach, can be different from those obtained using the assumption that kri is scalar. The magnitude of the difference is controlled by the absolute permeability, wettability, flow rate, and orientation of the fractures in the model. It is worth mentioning that the type and direction of imbibition can be determined by off-diagonal terms of the kri tensor. Furthermore, krii largely depends on the direction of the waterflood along the i-axis.

Classical Path-Integrals

The purpose of this chapter is to formalise functions and set theory. It is often handy to partition a collection of numbers into one package for neatness. This is the idea of a set; it is itself an object. A function is like a number-crunching box: numbers are fed into the function and another number comes out; it is a mapping from a set of numbers to another set of numbers and there are several ways to write it. A functional is a box that takes a function and gives out a number; it is a function of a function of a variable. A real-valued function is a scalar field when it has a scalar quantity as its output; it is called a vector field when the output is a vector. Other concepts associated with sets and functions are discussed, providing background to the other chapters in the book.

Syncretisms and the Morphosyntax of Negation

This chapter illustrates how syncretisms can be used as a tool to diagnose hidden structure inside what is usually considered an indivisible unit, i.e. a negative marker. Based on semantic, scopal, stacking, and functional properties of negative markers, it is proposed that negative markers can be classified in four groups: scalar quantity markers, classifier markers, focus markers, and tense markers. A study of these four different types of markers in a typological sample shows that meaningful syncretism patterns can be detected. If the markers are ordered in such a way that syncretic markers are contiguous and that no ABA patterns arise, then the derived sequence reflects the natural semantic scope of negation, i.e. from wide to narrow scope or from narrow to wide. This result leads to a decomposition of a negative marker into five syntactico-semantic features, i.e. Neg, Q, Class, Foc, and T.

The evolution of egophoricity and evidentiality in the Himalayas

The epistemic verbal categories “evidentiality” and “egophoricity” play an important role in the verbal systems of many Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas. In the course of the past decades, our synchronic understanding of those grammatical categories has been considerably enhanced by numerous descriptive studies. However, little is still known about the diachronic processes that give rise to evidentiality and egophoricity. The article addresses this gap by discussing evidence from Bunan, a Tibeto-Burman language, for which the development of evidentiality and egophoricity in its past tense system can be reconstructed in detail. It is argued that the evolution of the two categories can be explained by reference to two processes: (i) the reanalysis of a resultative construction as an inferential past tense and (ii) the reanalysis of third person agreement markers as allophoric markers. In addition, it is maintained that the concept of Scalar Quantity Implicature is crucial to account for the evolution of the two categories.