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Code-mixing and code-switching (CMCS) are prevalent phenomena observed in social media conversations and various other modes of communication. When developing applications such as sentiment analysers and hate-speech detectors that operate on this social media data, CMCS text poses challenges. Recent studies have demonstrated that prompt-based learning of pre-trained language models outperforms full fine-tuning across various tasks. Despite the growing interest in classifying CMCS text, the effectiveness of prompt-based learning for the task remains unexplored. This paper presents an extensive exploration of prompt-based learning for CMCS text classification and the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of the script on classifying CMCS text. Our study reveals that the performance in classifying CMCS text is significantly influenced by the inclusion of multiple scripts and the intensity of code-mixing. In response, we introduce a novel method, Dynamic+AdapterPrompt, which employs distinct models for each script, integrated with adapters. While DynamicPrompt captures the script-specific representation of the text, AdapterPrompt emphasizes capturing the task-oriented functionality. Our experiments on Sinhala-English, Kannada-English, and Hindi-English datasets for sentiment classification, hate-speech detection, and humour detection tasks show that our method outperforms strong fine-tuning baselines and basic prompting strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying aspects of multilingualism, such as the dynamics of multilingual and linguistic variation, is a widely documented phenomenon. What remains relatively less explored in such studies, however, concerns how translanguaging (TL) influences writing across languages. This study considers essays written by three students at the primary level of education in Sri Lanka in their first language (L1/Tamil), second language (L2/English) and third language (L3/Sinhala). The purpose of the study is to comprehend how TL practices influence their writing and to report on the reflections of the students and their teachers on TL in writing. The study provides insights into how TL supports student writing across languages and the views of teachers and students on TL in writing. Additionally, implications for the education of multilingual students are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) is a widely used tool to assess functional capacity among patients, but there is no Sinhala version validated for patients in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and test the validity and reliability of the Sinhala version of DASI (DASI-S). Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the DASI questionnaire were conducted following the standard guidelines. It was pre-tested on ten pre-operative patients and further modified. The construct validity and reliability of DASI-S were evaluated by administering the modified final DASI-S, which comprised 12 items, along with the physical functioning sub-scale of the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36), consisting of 10 items to eighty-one patients who were awaiting non-cardiac surgeries at university surgical wards, National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), and Colombo North Teaching Hospital (CNTH), Sri Lanka. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach alpha, while the validity was evaluated using factor analysis and Spearman's correlation. The ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.2 (± 16.6) years and the majority were females (54.3%). The mean height, weight, and body mass index of the sample were 160.5 (± 9.6) cm, 60.3 (± 11.9) kg, and 23.4 (± 4.5) kgm−2 respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the internal consistency of DASI-S was 0.861. The concurrent validity of DASI-S was substantiated by positively correlating (p < 0.01, rs = 0.466) with the physical sub-scale of SF-36. There was a significant difference (p < 0.01) in the total score of DASI-S between the two age groups. Conclusions: Sinhala version of the DASI appears to be a valid, reliable and easy-to-administer tool to assess functional capacity among patients who are awaiting non-cardiac surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Tinnitus is a common and disabling condition that largely remains undertreated in Sri Lanka. Currently, standardized tools that assess and monitor the treatment of tinnitus or the distress it causes are unavailable in either of the two main vernacular languages prevalent in Sri Lanka. The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) is used internationally to measure tinnitus-induced distress and to monitor treatment efficacy. In this study, we validated the Sinhala version of the THI (THI-Sin). Subjects and Methods: The THI was translated into Sinhala and back translated into English and finalized by independent translators. The THI-Sin questionnaire and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Visual Analog Scale of tinnitus annoyance (VAS) were administered to 122 adults who visited the otolaryngology clinic of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka. Results: THI-Sin scores showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.902) and were significantly correlated with the GHQ-12 and VAS scores. Factor analysis of the THI-Sin confirmed a three-factorial structure, which did not correspond to the original THI subscales. Conclusions: We observed significant reliability and validity of the THI-Sin tool for evaluation of tinnitus-induced handicaps among the Sinhalese-speaking population of Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Esensia: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Ushuluddin is the property of Esensia: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Ushuluddin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: Despite the availability of validated psychometrics tools to assess depression, there has not been any validated and reliable tool established to test perceived stress among Sri Lankans. The objective of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Sinhalese Version of the Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale. Materials and methods: Standard and systematic procedures were adopted to translate the original English version of the Perceived Stress Scale-10 questionnaire into Sinhalese. Consecutive sampling was employed to recruit the Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) sample (n=321), and a convenient sampling was used to recruit the Age and Sex matched Healthy Controls (ASMHC) (n=101) and the Healthy Community Controls (HCC) groups (n=75). Cronbach alpha was used to assess internal consistency and reliability was determined using test-retest method utilizing Spearman's correlation coefficient. Sensitivity was evaluated by comparing the mean scores of the Sinhalese Perceived Stress Scale (S-PSS-10) and Sinhalese Patient Health Questionnaire (S-PHQ-9) scores. Post-hoc comparisons were done using Bonferroni's method. Mean scores were compared between the T2DM, ASMHC, and HCC groups using the independent t-test. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component and Varimax rotation while the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to assess the goodness-of-fit of the factor structure extracted from the EFA. Concurrent validity was assessed using the Pearson correlation between the S-PSS-10 and Patient Health Questionnaire measured by S-PHQ-9 (p<0.05). Results: Cronbach alpha values of the three groups T2DM, ASMHC and HCC were 0.85, 0.81, and 0.79, respectively. Results of the ANOVA test suggested that there was a significant difference in the mean scores between groups (p<0.00). EFA analysis revealed the existence of two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The factor loadings for the items ranged from 0.71-0.83. The CFA analysis demonstrated a good model fit for the two-factor model S-PSS-10. The S-PSS-10 significantly correlated with S-PHQ-9, indicating an acceptable concurrent validity. Conclusion: Findings revealed that the S-PSS-10 questionnaire can be used to screen perceived stress among the majority of the Sri Lankan Sinhalese-speaking population specially with chronic illnesses. Further studies with higher sample sizes across different populations would enhance the validity and reliability of S-PSS-10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a parent-report screening tool used to measure parents' perceptions of children's functional intelligibility. This tool has been translated into over 60 languages and found to have a good reliability and validity. The purpose of the current study was to translate the ICS into Sinhala (the ICS-SIN), the main language spoken by the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka, and to validate it with both typically developing (TD) children and children with repaired cleft lip and/or palate (CLP). The translation process followed the forward-backward-forward method. A total of 88 parents of TD children and children with CLP aged 12–15 years old (TD n = 50, CLP n = 38) completed the ICS-SIN questionnaire. Parents of TD and CLP children reported their children's speech as most intelligible to parents and least intelligible to strangers. The ICS-SIN had high internal consistency for both groups (TD α = 0.87, p < 0.05, CLP α = 0.97, p < 0.05). The ICS-SIN total scores and item scores showed significant correlations, indicating a good construct validity. TD participant group's ICS-SIN average mean scores (M = 4.88, SD = 0.29) were significantly higher compared to the CLP ICS-SIN average mean scores (M = 4.64, SD = 0.67) and varied according to gender in both groups, suggesting good discriminant validity. The ICS-SIN has overall good psychometric properties. Therefore, this tool has the potential to be used as a valid parent-rating screening tool for clinical and research purposes in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Close relationships between the Sri Lankan Tamil community and the Tami communities in South India have resulted in the involvement of South Indian political parties in the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. This involvement has continued even after the defeat to Tamil terrorists by the Sri Lankan military and is primarily concerned with influencing Indian foreign policy on the separatism issue in Sri Lanka. The main objectives of this study were to identify the factors which are motivating South Indian political parties to influence Indian foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka and to identify the strategies used by South Indian political parties to influence Indian Central Government foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka. Research method to achieve these two objectives was a qualitative method. This research method consisted of collecting non-numeric data from individuals with significant knowledge of South Indian political parties and analysing the collected data using quantitative content analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there are several factors motivating South Indian political parties to influence foreign policy on separatism in Sri Lanka. These factors are namely genuine concern for the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils, political self-interest, financial factors, social and humanitarian factors. Findings from the study also revealed that the main strategies adopted by South Indian political parties to influence Indian foreign policy on separatism are to threaten to withhold support to the ruling party in the Lok Shaba and prevent/disrupt the implementation of national projects in South Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes stereotypes of Muslims that have recurred in Sinhala literature over the past seven centuries. This temporal span includes (1) a precolonial time when Muslims were a curiosity in Sinhala poetry as rich traders, wild men, and seductive women; (2) an early colonial time when the Portuguese and Dutch displaced more Muslims into the island interior, and Sinhala authors increasingly wrote of them as religious others akin to Tamils; and (3) a late colonial time when British policies forged religo-racial political categories in the decades leading up to the anti-Muslim pogroms of 1915. Each case is also connected to postcolonial instantiations or transformations of these typecasts. This history therefore eschews linear narratives of change to show the recurrent tendencies of social reasoning through stereotyping, past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Code-mixing and code-switching are frequent features in online conversations. Classification of such text is challenging if one of the languages is low-resourced. Fine-tuning pre-trained multilingual language models is a promising avenue for code-mixed text classification. In this paper, we explore adapter-based fine-tuning of PMLMs for CMCS text classification. We introduce sequential and parallel stacking of adapters, continuous fine-tuning of adapters, and training adapters without freezing the original model as novel techniques with respect to single-task CMCS text classification. We also present a newly annotated dataset for the classification of Sinhala–English code-mixed and code-switched text data, where Sinhala is a low-resourced language. Our dataset of 10000 user comments has been manually annotated for five classification tasks: sentiment analysis, humor detection, hate speech detection, language identification, and aspect identification, thus making it the first publicly available Sinhala–English CMCS dataset with the largest number of task annotation types. In addition to this dataset, we also tested our proposed techniques on Kannada–English and Hindi–English datasets. These experiments confirm that our adapter-based PMLM fine-tuning techniques outperform or are on par with the basic fine-tuning of PMLM models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English Medium Instruction (EMI) is a growing educational praxis in the world. Sri Lanka also practises EMI in primary, secondary and university education contexts. Nevertheless, EMI is not adequately researched: the existing scholarship alludes to the significance of its context-dependency (e.g., Snchez-Prez, Maria del Mar 2020). Moreover, there is a lacuna of scholarly knowledge of how EMI works in Sri Lankan educational contexts. Hence, this exploratory study examined lecturers' practices of, and insights into, EMI within the context of Sri Lankan higher education. The data were drawn from in-depth qualitative interviews with ten lecturers who teach Social Sciences through EMI at three state universities in the country. Interviewees - encompassing males and females and belonging to varying age groups - have a range of EMI teaching experience and different professional and educational qualifications. Qualitative thematic analysis was utilised to uncover themes related to EMI in the data. Findings disclose a few issues and problems associated with EMI. They underscore the belief that EMI enhances L2 (Second Language) proficiency, thus creating a space for job opportunities for undergraduates, and higher education and professional development for both lecturers and students. Nevertheless, EMI is problematic mainly due to (i) low L2 proficiency in both lecturers and students, (ii) lecturers' inconsistent praxis in assessing and teaching students, (iii) the shortage of training programmes on EMI, and (iv) arbitrary administration issues including the recruitment of EMI lecturers. The paper provides insights into EMI implementation in English as L2 contexts and adds new vocabulary to EMI praxis and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how the transnational lives of two Sinhalese-speaking Sri Lankan families in the rural U.S. influenced family language policy (FLP) and how they (re)positioned themselves in response to their transnational lives. Employing an ethnographic design, including interviews and observations, this study explores the families' language ideologies and management strategies and the factors that shaped their policies. Both families held similar language ideologies but contrasting management strategies that were informed by a differing socioeconomic status and eventual home country return, and which in turn led to different ways of FLP formation and implementation. FLPs were aimed at accruing capital and social prestige to facilitate the navigation of spaces in family members' present and (imagined) future lives in Sri Lanka and the U.S., and possibly beyond; yet, these same policies created a sense of ambivalence in regards to transnationals' cultural and linguistic identities and attachments. The findings show the competing and contradictory forces at play in transnational bilingual children's heritage language development. This study draws attention to how transnationals navigate global citizenry and how they make decisions about language as they reimagine and refashion their membership into multiple communities in an interconnected world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: English is the medium of instruction in the medical faculties in Sri Lanka, although the majority of the students who admit to the medical faculties completed their secondary school education with Sinhala as their first language. This disparity presents a potential barrier to their assimilation of knowledge in medical education. Objective: To assess the medical students' perception of the medium of instruction in medical education. Method: The medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, enrolled from 2013 to 2017, whose first language is Sinhala were included in the study. Perceptions about the medium of instruction in medical education were assessed through an anonymous self-administered questionnaire, which used a five-point Likert scale for responses. Results: From the total of 837 medical students, 665 (79.5%) participants had studied the General Certificate of Education - Ordinary Level (GCE O/L) in Sinhala and 172 (20.5%) in English. Eighty-eight percent (87.8%) had obtained an "A" grade for English Language in the GCE O/L examination. Over half (53.4%) of students responded that if medical textbooks were available in Sinhala, it would have increased their understanding of medical concepts. Nearly two-thirds (61%) responded that they perceived their performance in clinical examinations would have improved if those were carried out in Sinhala. Conclusion: The findings reveal the positive perception of students towards using their first language in medical education. Specifically, students feel that concepts of medicine would be better understood if medical textbooks were available in Sinhala and that they could have performed better if examinations were done in Sinhala, their first language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the set of environments in which KA-type quantifier particles appear crosslinguistically. These environments include interrogatives, disjunctions, indefinites, all of which arguably involve elements with Hamblin-type 'alternative' semantic values. I show that if KA-particles are assigned a uniform denotation as variables over choice functions we can account for their appearance in what otherwise appears to be a set of heterogeneous environments. Crosslinguistic and diachronic variation in the distribution of Q-particles – including, in some cases, the appearance of multiple morphologically-distinct Q-particles in different contexts – can be handled largely in terms of differing formal morphosyntactic features and/or pragmatic components of specific KA-particles. This study focuses on tracking the evolution of KA-type particles in the history of Sinhala, with comparison to other languages of the Indian subcontinent (including Malayalam and Tamil) as well as to Japanese, Tlingit, and English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highlight of Maithripala Sirisena's presidency came in its very beginning when he ended a decade of autocracy by restoring democracy. And when rivalry with his own prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, devolved into a constitutional crisis, Sirisena was forced to abide by the democratic norms he had restored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka's 69-year-old parliamentary democracy continues with power concentrated at the center, and consequently, the country's non-Sinhala-Buddhist minorities on the periphery continue to press for equal rights, while ethnic strife hinders prospects for unified progress. Maithripala Sirisena, president since 2015, promises reconciliation but has received little cooperation from the majority Sinhala Buddhists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between volitive/involitive moods of Sinhala verbs and subject case marking remains unresolved in the scarce generative literature on Sinhala. Previous analyses of subject case marking in this language ( Gair, 1990a,b; Inman, 1992; Beavers and Zubair, 2010, 2013 ) assume that non-nominative cases are lexical/inherent/quirky cases assigned by involitive verbs to the subject NP, whereas nominative case is not tied to any particular lexical semantics, and arises as the default case when the semantic conditions for all available quirky cases fail. We argue that the distinction between nominative and non-nominaive cases in Sinhala should not be characterized as one between default and lexical/inherent/quirky cases. Rather, based on previously unnoted data, we contend that (i) nominative case in Sinhala is a structural case assigned by a finite T, and (ii) A-movement in Sinhala is driven by case valuation (see Epstein and Seely, 2006; Bošković, 2002, 2007 ), rather than by a universal EPP structural requirement on T (contra Gair, 1990a,b ; see Chomsky, 2000, 2001 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is the property of Acta Linguistica Asiatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many recent theories of causative/inchoative alternations adopt an anticausativization analysis, wherein the inchoative is derived from the causative via some operation that eliminates the causer argument from a verb's argument structure, provided the causer is semantically unspecified for agentivity (Levin and Rappaport Hovav ; Chierchia ; Koontz-Garboden ). We explore the properties of such an analysis for causative/inchoative alternations in Colloquial Sinhala, which are overtly indicated via a volitive/involitive stem contrast on the verb. We argue that the alternation arises from a causer suppression operation that deletes the causer syntactically but preserves it semantically, albeit formally marking it as unresolvable for agentivity. This prevents the verb from occurring in certain contexts requiring agentivity of a syntactically active argument, including the volitive stem, although such a reading may be derived pragmatically. The patient in turn shows a case alternation that we argue reflects two ways the suppressed causer can be interpreted-via reflexivization or existential binding. These data, we argue, support an anticausative analysis as elimination of causers unspecified for agentivity. They also expand the typology of ways agentivity is encoded and left unspecified, how causer elimination can occur, and what types of overt morphology can indicate the alternation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates serial verbs and related constructions in Sri Lanka Malay and shows that at least four types have to be distinguished (Motion Verb Serialization, Vector Verb Serialization, Compound Verbs, Clause Chains). The constructions found are quite different from those found in Atlantic or Pacific Creoles. This is due to the different input languages: Two of the constructions can be traced to influence from the local languages Tamil and/or Sinhala; one is of Indonesian origin, and one is mixed. Sri Lanka Malay is thus not a simple combination of South Asian Grammar and Malay lexicon but also shows retentions of Malay grammar, as already demonstrated by Slomanson (2006). This recombination of features can only be explained with an account which acknowledges the possibility of grammatical contributions from all input languages, whether substrate, superstrate, or any other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The concept Health related Quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly recognized as an important health outcome measure in clinical and research fields. The present study attempted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Sinhala version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ 4.0 (PedsQL™ 4.0) Generic Core Scales among adolescents in Sri Lanka. Methods: The original US PedsQL™ was translated into Sinhala and conceptually validated according to international guidelines. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 142 healthy school going adolescents (12-14 years), their parents (n = 120) and a group of adolescents with asthma who attended asthma clinics (n = 115). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and validity by examining scale structure, exploring inter-scale correlations and comparing across known groups (healthy vs. chronically ill). Results: The PedsQL™ Sinhala version was found to be acceptable with minimal missing responses. All scales demonstrated satisfactory reliability. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale scores was 0.85 for adolescent self-report while for the parent proxy-report for the healthy group it was 0.86. No floor effects were observed. Ceiling effects were noticed in self-report and parent proxy-report for the healthy group. Overall results of the multi trait scaling analysis confirmed the scale structure with 74% item-convergent validity, 88% item-discriminant validity and an overall scaling success of 72%. Moderate to high correlations were shown among the domains of teen self-report (Spearman rho = .37-.54) and between teen self-report and parent proxy-reports (Spearman rho = .41-.57). The PedsQL™ tool was able to discriminate between the quality of life in healthy adolescents and adolescents with asthma. Conclusion: The findings support the reliability and validity of the Sinhala version of the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales as a generic instrument to measure HRQOL among early adolescents in Sri Lanka in a population setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka Malay has innovated a prominent and productive copula, which sets it apart from other descendents of colloquial Malay varieties. This copula has developed from the verb dhaathang ''to come'', which is a grammaticalization path not yet attested in the literature. This article describes the forms and functions of this copula and shows that it cannot be traced to any of the main input languages of Sri Lanka Malay (Trade Malay, Tamil, Sinhala). Comparing the Sri Lanka Malay case to attested grammaticalization paths, this article concludes that the grammaticalization of COME to a copula is less surprising when assuming intermediate stages of ''resultative'' and ''stative''. These subpaths are illustrated by a variety of Creole and non-Creole languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to problematize and render inadequate the 'truth' of Truth Commissions, which have proliferated globally. It does so by questioning the relationship of 'truth' to 'testimony' by offering a critical account of their relationship to 'trauma,' on the one hand and by questioning the location of 'testimony' in relation to 'resistance,' on the other hand. Moving away from this 'psycologistic register,' the paper rehearses a re-reading of Freud, which attempts to question the sharp distinction between mourning and melancholia, in his 1917 essay. Given this, a complex, psychoanalytic subject is constructed, whose psychic and social 'work of melancholia,' and 'acts of memory,' cannot be straightforwardly rendered in testimony or recollection, and is unavailable for nationalist appropriation. Empirical material is drawn from field work in Eastern Sri Lanka, on the after life multiple massacres that took place in the early 1990s, and is juxtaposed with Commissions of Inquiry into these events in the late 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This monograph examines the language planning situation in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the planning of Sinhala as an official language of the country. It explores the historical, social, ideological and political processes, changes in language policy decisions, as well as the complexities of the language policy and planning situation in the country. After a general account of the language profile of Sri Lanka, the sections that follow examine both status and corpus planning that have occurred in Sri Lanka since the country became independent in 1948. This monograph investigates the spread of Sinhala in education, literacy and the media and the role of English in the wider context. The final section describes some important recent developments in language planning in Sri Lanka and suggests some ideas for continuing research on language policy planning. This monograph demonstrates the linguistic, political and ethnic character of language planning in a South Asian post-colonial setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The verb morphosyntax of Sri Lankan Malay (SLM) differs strikingly from that found in other Malay varieties in that it has developed bound functional morphology as well as contrasts that are not present in related Indonesian varieties. Various types of functional prefixes and suffixes are now associated with the SLM verb which were not previously associated with Malay verbs, including tense and (non-)finiteness markers. The periphrastic perfect construction (1) is discussed and analyzed as biclausal, based on evidence from negation. The auxiliary aɖa can be negated, interrupting the adjacency of the verb and the auxiliary. Negation ordinarily precedes the lexical verb in the SLM verbal complex. The fact that a morphologically finite negation element is prefixed to the auxiliary in (1) supports a biclausal analysis of this construction. The construction does not add a semantic contrast, but compensates for the reanalysis of the free-standing perfect marker su as a bound tense affix. Some younger speakers are not using past or completive prefixation, and are reinterpreting aɖa (as -ɖa) as a suffix on the main verb, demonstrating that morphological simplicity or complexity in radical contact languages does not increase monodirectionally. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using data and case study evidence gathered from fieldwork in eastern Sri Lanka during 1998–99, this paper fleshes out the particular situation of Sinhala female-heads. What conflict and non-conflict factors lead to female-headship? The evidence supports the contention that the patriarchal households may be adjusting to factors beyond the ethnic conflict. It is important to highlight the complex and dynamic relationships to understand the economic opportunities exploited by female-heads to maintain their economic security. However, there is also a social cost to this. Female-heads’ participation in the labour market is linked to the support they receive from kin and community structures. However, there is also a social cost to this, as they perceive suchreliance requires certain gendered standards of behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• QP is postulated between DP and NumP, with evidence adduced from Sinhala and Chinese. • QP accommodates indefinite articles and indefinite quantifiers. • DP–QP distinction allows co-occurrence of a demonstrative and an indefinite article in Sinhala and Chinese. • QP–NumP distinction captures the disparate syntactic behaviors of quantificational phrases in Sinhala and Chinese. This paper proposes a QP account for indefiniteness in a range of languages, with QP being situated between DP and NumP. This proposal differs from the traditional DP framework crucially in two aspects: (i) definiteness and indefiniteness are expressed by DP and QP, respectively, and their co-occurrence is theoretically allowed, under due circumstances; (ii) both [Spec, DP] and [Spec, QP] can serve as the landing sites for an XP under a wh -movement, which can thus be associated with both definiteness and indefiniteness. Crucially, the postulation of QP accounts for several nominal phenomena in the Sinhala language, which pose serious challenges to the traditional DP framework. First, Sinhala features the existence of indefinite articles as well as the absence of definite ones; second, an indefinite article can co-occur with a demonstrative in one and the same nominal phrase; third, NP necessarily precedes [numeral + (classifier)], regardless of its (in-)definiteness; fourth, indefinite quantifiers exhibit disparities along the line of their (in-)sensitivity toward the feature of animacy. All these phenomena can be adequately captured by the proposal of QP; specifically, the first three are explained by the DP–QP division whereas the fourth one by the QP–NumP distinction. The DP proposal is further supported by the need to have both DP–QP and QP–NumP divisions in the Chinese language, as well as the intuitive account it provides for the "double definiteness" in Scandinavian languages. In sum, the QP postulation is strongly motivated by cross-lingual evidence for the account of definiteness and indefiniteness as two separate but related unary features instead of binary value of the same feature, e.g. [+/−DEF]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]