The Representation of Gender and Inflectional Class in Italian: A Reply to Kučerová 2018

In a recent article, Kučerová 2018 (henceforth K18) puts forward a novel theory of the morphology and interpretation of nominal gender in Italian. This paper takes issue with this theory from both empirical and theoretical standpoints. We first show that several generalisations presented as empirical support for it are in fact incorrect. We then point out a series of fundamental challenges for the theory. First, the proposed three-way classification of nouns misrepresents the full range of facts, because it does not take into account plural morphology or the interdependencies of CLASS and GENDER features. Second, the account of gender mismatch in terms of “semiconservativity” fails to capture the Italian data, once the full paradigm is considered. Finally, K18’s use of Phase Theory to model contextual valuation of gender faces an insurmountable lookahead problem.

Collective behavior in the North Rhine-Westphalia motorway network

To understand the dynamics on complex networks, measurement of correlations is indispensable. In a motorway network, it is not sufficient to collect information on fluxes and velocities on all individual links, i.e. parts of the freeways between ramps and highway crosses. The interdependencies and mutual connections are also of considerable interest. We analyze correlations in the complete motorway network in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. We view the motorway network as a complex system consisting of road sections which interact via the motion of vehicles, implying structures in the corresponding correlation matrices. In particular, we focus on collective behavior, i.e. coherent motion in the whole network or in large parts of it. To this end, we study the eigenvalue and eigenvector statistics and identify significant sections in the motorway network. We find collective behavior in these significant sections and further explore its causes. We show that collectivity throughout the network cannot directly be related to the traffic states (free, synchronous and congested) in Kerner’s three-phase theory. Hence, the degree of collectivity provides a new, complementary observable to characterize the motorway network.

A Fast Bubble Detection Method in Microtubes Based on Pulsed Ultrasound

In the process of biological microfluidic manipulation, the bubbles generated in the tube will seriously reduce the gauging accuracy. This paper introduces an improving method that can estimate the size of microbubbles in real time. Hence, the measurement data of the liquid volume can be modified according to this method. A microbubble detector based on the pulsed-ultrasound method was studied, including the device structure and the working principle. The assessment formula of the microbubbles in the tube was derived from the simulation results, which adopted the two-phase theory. The digital image processing method was applied to fulfill the microbubble calibration. This detection method was applied to measure the microbubbles in the tube and to modify the flow volume in a timely manner. The results of the experiments showed that this method is effective at improving the microflow gauging accuracy.

A Conservative Macroscopic Model for Binary-mixture Fluidized Beds

Two approaches are commonly used for modeling the vertical mixing of binary-mixture fluidized beds, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and macroscopic modeling. A common realization of the latter one is the Gibiralo–Rowe (G-R) model, which uses the Two-Phase Theory. This macroscopic model obviously overperforms CFDs regarding computational cost; however, determining its coefficients is a still challenging issue. Although several methods were published for solving this, the general problem with most of them remains their neglecting the conservation of mass. In the present new procedure, the mass conservation is applied to correct the values of the G-R model coefficients estimated from known equations. The present model was validated on a wide variety of fluidized bed systems. The results show that this conservative and macroscopic model gives more accurate predictions than the recently published other macroscopic models, and this one is, in general, better than the CFD model from the perspective of prediction accuracy as well.

Simulation Study of Rear-End Crash Evaluation considering Driver Experience Heterogeneity in the Framework of Three-Phase Traffic Theory

Driving safety is considered to have a strong relationship with traffic flow characteristics. However, very few studies have addressed the safety impacts in the three-phase traffic theory that has been demonstrated to be an advancement in explaining the empirical features of traffic flow. Another important issue affecting safety is driver experience heterogeneity, especially in developing countries experiencing a dramatic growth in the number of novice drivers. Thus, the primary objective of the current study is to develop a microsimulation environment for evaluating safety performance considering the presence of novice drivers in the framework of three-phase theory. First, a car-following model is developed by incorporating human physiological factors into the classical Intelligent Driver Model (IDM). Moreover, a surrogate safety measure based on the integration concept is modified to evaluate rear-end crashes in terms of probability and severity simultaneously. Based on a vehicle-mounted experiment, the field data of car-following behavior are collected by dividing the subjects into a novice group and an experienced group. These data are used to calibrate the proposed car-following model to explain driver experience heterogeneity. The results indicate that our simulation environment is capable of reproducing the three-phase theory, and the changes in the modified surrogate safety measure are highly correlated with traffic phases. We also discover that the presence of novice drivers leads to different safety performance outcomes across various traffic phases. The effect of driver experience heterogeneity is found to increase the probability of the rear-end crashes as well as the corresponding severity. The results of this study are expected to provide a scientific understanding of the mechanisms of crash occurrences and to provide application suggestions for improving traffic safety performance.

Prepositional Phrases in English as Phases of the Weak Kind

A phase is an instance of derivation or “spell out’’ of a chunk or whole of a sentence construction. It is standardly assumed that only complementizer phrases and little v(erb) phrases are phases, and tense and verb phrases are not phases. Other categories such as determiner phrases and applicative phrases have been tested positive for phases. However, no claim is made about the status of prepositional phrases as phases. This paper investigated whether prepositional phrases in English can have the status of a phase as defined in phase theory. It was hypothesised that prepositional phrases are phases of the ‘weak’ kind. To determine the phase status of prepositional phrases, the method of standard phase diagnostics tests such as computational complexity, phonological independence, semantic independence, and case checking, and theta completeness were used. It was found out that computational complexity is not a valid test to test prepositional phrases for phasehood. While prepositional phrases bear very strong evidence to be labelled phases with respect to phonological independence, PPs fail to be phases in the case of semantic independence, and case checking and theta completeness. Given these findings, it was concluded that prepositional phrases in English are phases of the ‘weak’ kind. A sample of sentence constructions in English selected by the author and borrowed from the existing literature were used for the tests to draw conclusions. The study is expected to help better understand and analyze the cognitive processes involved in the acquisition and production of the English language specifically and any language in general.

Clausal-Internal Scrambling in Urdu Language: A Derivation by Phases

Scrambling in Clausal-Internal is accounted for employing minimalist program as a theoretical framework on Urdu Naturalistic data in this study. For empirical evidence, an Urdu corpus has been accumulated in audio-recording forms from 100 competent Urdu speakers within the natural setting, taking Naturalist Inquiry as methodological purposes. Employing minimalist program on Urdu data, this study vehemently postulates that the dislocation of arguments from base to host position only hinges on the phase heads— Co and vo; hence no other external devices essentially necessitate accounting for scrambling. This study highlighted scrambling in clausal-internal specifically within Indo-Aryan Languages is Universal Phase-Based parsimony, and it is only controlled by the exiting mechanism within the phase theory. Moreover, the only merge and move operations linearize the CP in a phase-based fashion while CP is a higher phase and vP is a lower phase. No additional AGRoP necessitates scrambling, but one phase successively and cyclically converges into a higher phase level, i.e. CP and the derivation matches at LF and PF interfaces satisfying Full Interpretation (FI).

Phase-command and minimal binding

*Working paper for circulation*: It is my intention in these comments to present and assess Bruening’s arguments for phase-command before synthesizing his proposal with neighbouring developments in phase theory and the syntax-semantics interface.