In the south slavonic garden: landscaping the landscape od arguments and non-arguments

This paper deals with morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of the so-called Cognate Object Construction with particular reference to Serbo-Croatian and Slovene. The relevance of an examination of such morphologically robust languages is manifold. It facilitates an understanding of some of the puzzling properties of the construction cross linguistically, offers a way of explaining the noted disagreement regarding judgments found in the literature on Germanic languages such as English and also presents a clear case where (contrary to the dominant view in the literature) morphology seems to deceive, rather than inform us, about syntax. Based on a barrage of tests, I argue that there are two types of cognate objects: arguments and non-arguments. Extending the treatment of modifiers within the Davidsonian tradition to the latter, I analyse them as first-order predicates. This allows me to capture their core properties, among which is the obligatory modification, something unaccounted for in the literature. The semantic parallelism between the adverbial modifiers and non-ACOs extends to the syntax as well. Treating non-ACOs as adjuncts solves the problem of the scarcity of syntactic space that arises with unaccusative verbs that license them. ACOs, on the other hand, behave syntactically and semantically like run-of-the-mill arguments and a run-of-the-mill transitive syntax can be maintained (for a majority of them) instead.

The Form of the Phi Kernel

This chapter considers the broader lessons that might be drawn from the current study of person. It draws out the core commonalities between the person and number features that have been proposed: that features are “operations” richer than first-order predicates held together by conjunction; that they are not subject to extrinsic constraints on order of composition or co-occurrence; and that there are semantic and morphological grounds for representing features of both kinds bivalently. The consequences of this study might ramify beyond linguistics by altering our understanding of and means of investigating the language of thought and the nature and evolution of mind. The author asserts, contrary to widespread opinion, minds do leave fossils, but these are to be sought, not by paleoanthropologists sifting through the archeological record, but by cognitive scientists, including linguists, via our theories of the structure of the mind itself.

Oldfangled and

Traditional accounts of person assume that features denote first order predicates, that their values denote one-place truth functors, and that feature bundles are held together semantically by conjunction. Crucially, conjunction is a commutative operation, unlike those belonging to the current theory. The current chapter explores the consequences of semantics commutativity for theories of person features. Reviewing a range of influential accounts, it shows that these are accounts undergenerate if given only two features, but overgenerate if given more, and that means of trimming the generative excess are unsatisfactory. The chapter also compares three analyses of Bininj-Gunwok, which has a tripartite person for objects but quadripartite for person, arguing that the smallest feature inventory yields the most compact account.

A HIERARCHICAL REASONING SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC PROGRAM PARALLELIZATION

Automatic parallelization of large and complex program regions requires the compiler to reason about complex semantic information. This paper describes a hierarchical reasoning system implemented within the Panorama parallelizing compiler. This reasoning system intelligently and efficiently extracts useful semantic information in the form of first-order predicates from program statements. It uses a hierarchical structure to represent the predicates, which enables fast determination of their truth in common cases. A hierarchical value graph facilitates rule-based, demand-driven retrieval of useful predicates.

An Assembly Constraint Model for Parameterized Mechanical Systems

This paper (1) introduces Natural Assembly Relationships (NARs) to model assembly constraints between parts and (2) analyzes the constraint relationships that are defined using NARs for parameterized mechanical assemblies. The NARs are expressed as first order predicates using primitive features as arguments, such as planar and cylindrical surfaces. The concept of Basic Parameters Set is introduced as the design parameters in CAD systems, which, together with a set of form feature constraint relationships, maintains maximal consistency with original design meanings. Based on NARs, part parameters, and primitive features, design parameter chains can be constructed for closed loop assemblies. From these chains, constraint equations can be derived, which are the basis for change propagation and information management for mechanical system design.