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Copyright of Journal of English Studies is the property of Universidad de la Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones 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.)

The author considers the problem of placing buildings, structures and other objects in zones with special conditions for the use of territories in violation of the restrictions on the use of land plots established by law. Until August 2018, this issue was not regulated in the legislation, as well as the legal regime of protected zones and other zones with special conditions for the use of territories was not properly regulated. At the same time, the judicial practice on disputes over the demolition of these objects was not uniform. In connection with the adoption (in August 2018) of legislative acts affecting both the legal regulation of unauthorized buildings and regulation of the legal regime of zones with special conditions for the use of territories, the work makes attempts to analyze the current legislation, the main positions of the courts and understand the reasons that caused the adoption of new legislative acts. The author comes to the conclusion that at present the legal fate of objects located in zones with special conditions for the use of territories in violation of the restrictions established for land plots depends on a number of circumstances identified by the judicial authorities when considering disputes and having been enshrined in the norms of law. The methodological basis of the research is made up of general scientific (in particular, logical) and special legal (formal legal) methods of scientific knowledge. The logical method (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, analogy, etc.) made it possible to identify various legal grounds for the demolition of objects built in zones with special conditions for the use of territories in violation of the established restrictions. With the help of the formal legal method, the court practice of the applying the norms of civil legislation on unauthorized constructions in relation to the placement of objects in zones with special conditions for the use of territories was analyzed.

Despite the increased interest that collocations have received in EFL methodology lately, making language learners aware of these multiword constructions continues to represent a challenge for teachers. While there may be different ways of teaching collocations, finding activities that raise collocational awareness efficiently is no easy task. Collocational awareness can be defined as the ability of language learners (and users) to use and acknowledge word combinations in their entirety. Humour can be useful in this regard as it not only ensures a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom but can also help students to acknowledge and remember specific linguistic structures (among them, also collocations) more easily. In line with Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995, 1997, 2006), it is believed that collocations are to be treated as constructions, pairings of form with a specific meaning and varying degrees of predictability – teaching them as such can contribute to a better understanding and acquisition of these constructions. After offering a brief overview of the characteristics of collocations and reflecting on the possible advantages of using humour in class, the paper shows possible ways of teaching collocations with humour. The exercises and activities suggested focus on both the productive and receptive competence of language learners and also incorporate the necessary skills required in the language learning process: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

This article deals with the syntax and semantics of Old English End verbs on the basis of the framework of verb classes and alternations and the theory of Role and Reference Grammar. The analysis focuses on class membership and includes meaning components and argument realisation—linking in simplex and complex constructions and alternations. The inventory of verbs under analysis comprises a¯blinnan, ætstandan, blinnan, for(e)sacan, geblinnan, linnan, ofersittan, oflinnan, oðstillan and (ge)trucian. The main conclusion is that the morphologically related verbs a¯blinnan and blinnan are the strongest candidates for End verbs, given the syntactic constructions and morphosyntactic alternations in which they are found.

The trend towards recycling of unused or poorly used materials is a major challenge to society as it contributes to reducing resource and energy consumption. In terms of architecture, the use of these materials as alternative elements of construction is one of the objectives of green architecture. The use of shipping containers for construction works is a global approach. It is an economic and environmental solution that transforms unused containers into low-cost and fast-processing structures that can be assembled in different styles; used for residential, commercial or administrative purposes; The use of shipping containers in architectural terms in Egypt is very limited and represents only individual efforts in limited trials. He also does not find a high demand in Egypt for several reasons, some respect to technical reasons and others regard to humanitarian reasons. The study aims to identify the reasons for the lack of expansion in the use of shipping containers in the construction of buildings in Egypt, although there are a number of factors supporting this trend. This is done by studying the current state of container usage in Egypt and the obstacles and challenges facing the expansion of its use. It also presents a number of suggestions that contribute to supporting the idea; in addition to some secondary objectives of studying the advantages and disadvantages of using containers in architecture in general, and universal experiences in this direction The study follows the analytical approach that is carried out through the analysis of studies conducted in this direction and the study and evaluation of the current situation through available sources of information and related references.

The goal of thisarticle is to determine rational constructional and technological options for the development of underground space, in particular, the arrangement of underground parking lots under the specific hydrogeological conditions of Dnipro city. In thisarticle,the best practices in the construction of similar facilities in the worldare discussed. Arrangements for individual structural elements and structures as a wholewere considered. The main resources for their implementation are determined, the most important performance indicators are calculated, their comparison is carried out and proposals for the use of individual technological concepts are developed. The experience of underground space development in Dnipro city is studiedandthe problems of construction of underground structures under specific difficult hydrogeological conditions are identified. The proposed technological concepts make it possible to implement such design solutions under difficult hydrogeological conditions with dense development and preservation of historical buildings in the city.

Construction projects in Iraq suffer from weakness in several respects, starting from feasibility studies and planning until the end of construction lifespan. Therefore, a study was required to demonstrate the importance of using artificial intelligence in the construction of infrastructure projects and sustainable development to reduce costs, errors, time, and to conserve energy and natural resources as much as possible. The benefits of artificial intelligence in the construction industry have been explained through the stages of the project that have been carefully selected, which represent the stages from the beginning to the end of the life of the project according to what is defined and customary in the construction of infrastructure projects and sustainable development projects in Iraq. A questionnaire was organized for experts specializing in construction industry who have sufficient experience to indicate their opinion on the importance of using artificial intelligence at all stages of the project in Iraq, and the results showed that there is a clear discrepancy in this importance, sequentially from the great importance in design and planning and ending at the stage of supervision and implementation, which experts seem to have preferred, that this paragraph needs to be kept under human management and follow-up.

This paper is devoted to the brilliant Czech logician and philosopher of language Pavel Tichý (1936-1994) who, after emigrating to New Zealand in 1970 and spending half his life there as a political refugee, committed suicide shortly before returning to his alma mater, Charles University in Prague, as Chair of the Department of Logic in the Faculty of Arts. After tracing a biographical profile of the Czech logician, the paper explains some of the central ideas of Tichý's highly original theory, called Transparent Intensional Logic, while locating it in the wider context of the analytic philosophy of language. The paper concludes by highlighting the role played by Tichý's intensional theory in advancing various disciplines, including artificial intelligence, with the aim of shedding light on the significant contributions of the Czech logician, who has yet to gain due recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the syntax and semantics of Old English Try verbs within the framework of verb classes and alternations and the theory of Role and Reference Grammar. The analysis focuses on class membership and includes meaning components and argument realization (linking in simplex and complex constructions and alternations). The inventory of verbs under analysis comprises (ge)cneordlǣcan, (ge)fandian, fundian, hīgian, onginnan and (ge)tilian. The main conclusion is that the class of Old English Try verbs is syntactically and semantically consistent, even though evidence for the nominalisation alternation has been found for hīgian only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the main constructions showing a covert encoding of Path of motion in Classical Greek (5th–4th century BC). Based on a corpus study of five texts belonging to different literary genres, it applies the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic approaches, such as the semantic typology of motion events and Construction Grammar, to the data from an ancient language, in order to address the non-compositional expression of Path. The results of the analysis reveal that, in addition to the overt morphosyntactic encoding of Path information, Ancient Greek resorts to more implicit patterns, in which coercion, meaning extension and inference play a crucial role. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional views on motion expression, this study shows that the encoding of spatial meaning is rarely committed to a single lexical or morphological tool within the clause, but rather it distributes across different linguistic units and results from their interaction with one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of parenting plays a critical role in human development and well-being across the lifespan. Concurrently, the quality of parenting is underpinned by the dominant parenting ideas and practices that prevail in a specific socio-cultural context at a specific time. These ideas and practices may, therefore, vary over different social contexts, as well as over time. South Africa has a history of patriarchal family structures characterised by authoritarian parenting practises across its diverse population groups. Since the end of apartheid, however, South African society has been undergoing rapid changes that has impacted parenting structures and ideas. Currently, little is known about how these changes have affected contemporary young South Africans' parenting constructions, specifically higher socio-economic groups that are more likely to take up contemporary ideas. To address this knowledge gap, this study adopted a feminist social constructionist framework and explored the parenting constructions of a group of tertiary-educated prospective parents. We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 postgraduate university students and used an inductive thematic analysis method to analyse the interview data. The results indicate that the prospective parents in this study adhered to authoritative parenting principles, distanced themselves from traditional gendered parent roles, and aspired to equal parenting roles in their own parenting. However, parallel to these signs of modern parenting ideas is the maintenance of traditional parenting notions such as innate differences between male and female parents, heterosexual parenting units as ideal for children, superiority and primacy of biological children, and associating parenthood with ultimate life fulfilment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the goals in Cognitive Linguistics is the automatic identification and analysis of constructions, since they are fundamental linguistic units for understanding language. This article presents DISCOver, an unsupervised methodology for the automatic discovery of lexico-syntactic patterns that can be considered as candidates for constructions. This methodology follows a distributional semantic approach. Concretely, it is based on our proposed pattern-construction hypothesis: those contexts that are relevant to the definition of a cluster of semantically related words tend to be (part of) lexico-syntactic constructions. Our proposal uses Distributional Semantic Models for modelling the context taking into account syntactic dependencies. After a clustering process, we linked all those clusters with strong relationships and we use them as a source of information for deriving lexico-syntactic patterns, obtaining a total number of 220,732 candidates from a 100 million token corpus of Spanish. We evaluated the patterns obtained intrinsically, applying statistical association measures and they were also evaluated qualitatively by experts. Our results were superior to the baseline in both quality and quantity in all cases. While our experiments have been carried out using a Spanish corpus, this methodology is language independent and only requires a large corpus annotated with the parts of speech and dependencies to be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present here a methodology for learning and teaching lexical knowledge based on the notion of “construction” and applied to French as a foreign language (university level). It is illustrated in a particular domain: that of verbo-nominal collocations allowing to express the beginning (appearance, birth, beginning), the continuation (persistence, continuation) and the end (disappearance, stop) of the existence of something; the verbs and nouns used come from the “transversal” lexicon of the human and social sciences in an academic context. It is shown that the (more or less strong) compatibilities and the incompatibilities between verbs and nouns can be explained to learners in terms of the ‘facet’ (i.e. point of view) that the verb imposes on the name, according to its meaning in the construction considered. It is also shown that the comparison of two constructions expressing the same main idea makes it possible to measure their degree of semantic proximity, on the basis of the (in)compatibilities of verbs with the major categories of nouns, and of their more or less strong affinity (or absolute incompatibility) with the types of names. The presentation of the structuring concepts (facet, category and type of nouns) is followed by a description of the didactic tools that they allow to design, and by the report of three didactic sequences set up as part of the training in academic writing.

With the gradual maturity of the terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) technology, it is widely used in the field of deformation monitoring due to its fast, automated, and non-contact data acquisition capabilities. The TLS technology has changed the traditional deformation monitoring mode which relies on single-point monitoring. This paper analyzes the application of TLS in deformation monitoring, especially in the field of ground surface, dam, tunnel, and tall constructions. We divide the methods for obtaining ground surface deformation into two categories: the method based on point cloud distance and the method based on displacement field. The advantages and disadvantages of the four methods (M2M, C2C, C2M, M3C2) based on point cloud distance are analyzed and summarized. The deformation monitoring methods and precisions based on TLS for dams, tunnels, and tall constructions are summarized, as well as the various focuses of different monitoring objects. Additionally, their limitations and development directions in the corresponding fields are analyzed. The error sources of TLS point cloud data and error correction models are discussed. Finally, the limitations and future research directions of TLS in the field of deformation monitoring are presented in detail.

For the forst time, the general properties of degenerate related hypergeometric systems such as Horn, Whittaker, Bessel and Laguerre are investigated together. The joint research allowed to reveal their various common properties and to establish a number of new degenerate related systems. They are all private cases of the common system offered by the authors for consideration. For the full study, it is important to classify its regular and irregular special curves and to identify the types of corresponding solutions. In this paper, they are implemented using simple rules. Special attention is paid to the construction of normal and regular solutions, because the solutions of all related degenerate systems such as Horn, Whittaker, Bessel and Laguerre near the irregular singularity on infonity relate to this species. Peculiarities of building normal-regular solutions by the Frobenius-Latysheva method are shown. All constructed normal-regular solutions are expressed through the function of Humbert n variables, which is the solution of degenerate hypergeometric system of Horn type. As an example, the cases n = 2 where, along with the application of the Frobenius-Latysheva method, the possibility of outputting new degenerate related systems is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manuscript introduces a novel approach to design and construct a pore water pressure sensor utilizing strain gage technology integrated with deep learning principles. This sensor type is specifically tailored for measuring pressure at the vertex of pile bases in structures with substantial load-bearing capacity. While existing pressure sensors employing strain gage technology are available, this research addresses a unique measurement model suited for deep-water environments characterized by high corrosiveness and heavy loads. Consequently, the manuscript proposes design innovations aimed at optimizing the sensor’s form and dimensions to accommodate these demanding conditions. Computational simulations are conducted to perform relevant calculations, with results validated through rigorous analysis and experimentation against real-world datasets. Moreover, the study incorporates a pioneering deep learning-based data acquisition model to enhance output values, a feature currently underutilized in sensor technology. The findings demonstrate the viability of the proposed water pressure sensor model in various challenging working environments. This research underscores the potential for proactive manufacturing of sensors in diverse configurations, emphasizing adaptability and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Nanocarriers specifically developed for clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs in the last five years are comprehensively summarized. • Nanocarries for clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs are systematically classified. • The construction of each kind of nanocarriers for clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs is described in detail. • The accomplishments of each newly developed nanocarriers for clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs are discussed. • Future efforts for more smart delivery of clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs are proposed. Platinum(II) drugs have been one of the most commonly used anticancer drugs in clinic. However, drug resistance and severe toxic effects limit their clinical applications. Developing nanocarriers for platinum(II) anticancer drugs provides promising strategies to overcome these problems, ascribed to their versatile functionalities such as precise delivery of platinum(II) drugs to tumor site, modulation of tumor microenvironment, and integration of other anticancer agents or therapies. In this review, nanocarriers that have been recently developed to deliver platinum(II) anticancer drugs in the last five years are described focusing on their smart constructions and functions. The current situation of clinical platinum(II) anticancer drugs is first introduced, followed by the discussion of the irreplaceable role of nanocarriers for platinum(II) anticancer drugs. Afterward, the rules for classifying the nanocarriers in this review and the advantages of each type are explained. Based on the classification, the latest published nanocarriers of each kind for platinum(II) drugs are then described in detail. In the end, conclusions and future directions provide perspectives for future exploration of more smart delivery strategies for platinum(II) drugs. It is expected that this review will promote the development of more efficient and safe nanocarriers for platinum(II) anticancer drugs that are available for the final clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is common for "replacive" tonal patterns to be assigned by wordlevel morphological constructions, it is far less common for such overriding schemas to be assigned by specific phrase-level syntactic constructions. Kalabari, an Ijo language of Nigeria, does exactly this: Whenever the noun is preceded by a modifier, it loses its tones and receives different "melodies" depending on the constructional word class of the preceding specifier/modifier, either /HL/, /HLH/, /LH/, or /L/. In this paper, we first document the assignment of these different syntactic melodies and then provide evidence for how they developed diachronically. We then present a brief survey of other linguistic phenomena which partially resemble the Kalabari system, but conclude that tone is the only phrasal phonological property that can be assigned by construction from word to word.

Although it is common for "replacive" tonal patterns to be assigned by wordlevel morphological constructions, it is far less common for such overriding schemas to be assigned by specific phrase-level syntactic constructions. Kalabari, an Ijo language of Nigeria, does exactly this: Whenever the noun is preceded by a modifier, it loses its tones and receives different "melodies" depending on the constructional word class of the preceding specifier/modifier, either /HL/, /HLH/, /LH/, or /L/. In this paper, we first document the assignment of these different syntactic melodies and then provide evidence for how they developed diachronically. We then present a brief survey of other linguistic phenomena which partially resemble the Kalabari system, but conclude that tone is the only phrasal phonological property that can be assigned by construction from word to word.

The article is devoted to the current state of the protective forest plantations in the North-West Caucasus, the history of their creation and relevance in the national economy of the region of research. The issues of arrangement, design, breed composition of protective belts, the effectiveness of their use have been covered. At present, measures are needed in the North-West Caucasus to improve and ensure a qualitative change of generations of plantings, reconstruction of forest shelter belts, and therefore the issues under consideration are relevant. The research has revealed the current state, species composition, design of protective forest plantings in the Republic of Adygeya. Common oak, green ash, Tatarian maple, Amur maple are considered to be main forest-forming species. A brief ecological and biological characteristic of black walnut is given as a promising introduced species for field-protective forestation. Marked design - Open planted and permeable constructions are marked. In order to preserve soil fertility in the future, it is necessary to restore and construct new protective forest belts.

This paper presents data about the sociocultural construction of conflict and the killing of jaguars and pumas in a part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) of Costa Rica. Results from participant observation and 131 interviews revealed cultural differences between Ticos (non-Indigenous people) and Cabécar (Indigenous people) on four separate dimensions of conflict, where large felines were constructed as competitors, food, man-eaters, real and imagined. When compared to Ticos, Cabécar had more conflict, most likely because they live off the land and have frequent “real” encounters with felines. This study makes several contributions: 1) evidence suggests competition is not the only reason for killing large felines; motivations also include constructing them as man-eaters and as food, raising questions about the important role social and cultural factors play in solutions to conflict; 2) meanings from Cabécar are products of a traditional and modernised relationship with large felines; 3) Cabécar include jaguars as food, suggesting future research and conservation management must understand Indigenous Peoples' relations with large predators, including their diets and traditions; 4) potential for conflict may increase between Ticos and large felines as they repopulate; 5) culture is crucial to examine prior to management implementation.

What is the nature and function of mental representations in cognitive science, and in human language in particular? How do they come into existence and interact, and how is the information attributed to them stored in and retrieved from the human mind? Some theories treat constructions as primitive entities used for structure-building, central in both production and comprehension, while other theories only admit construction-like entities as devices to map the structure into semantics or to relate them to specific morphophonological exponents. In this positional piece, we seek to elucidate areas of commonality across what have traditionally been divergent approaches to the role of constructions in language. Here we outline a robust specification of the differences in how chunks of structure containing information are treated in the two main approaches, and we seek to offer a path toward a more unified theoretical stance.

The generalisation of linguistic constructions is performed through analogical reasoning. Children with developmental language disorders (DLD) are impaired in analogical reasoning and in generalisation. However, these processes are improved by an input involving variability and similarity. Here we investigated the performance of children with or without DLD in a construction generalisation task. We also compared their performance following training with an input involving progressive alignment (combining similarity and variability) or high variability. Progressive alignment improves construction generalisation in children with or without DLD, which could have implications for our understanding of language development and for interventions conducted with children with DLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the nature and function of mental representations in cognitive science, and in human language in particular? How do they come into existence and interact, and how is the information attributed to them stored in and retrieved from the human mind? Some theories treat constructions as primitive entities used for structure-building, central in both production and comprehension, while other theories only admit construction-like entities as devices to map the structure into semantics or to relate them to specific morphophonological exponents. In this positional piece, we seek to elucidate areas of commonality across what have traditionally been divergent approaches to the role of constructions in language. Here we outline a robust specification of the differences in how chunks of structure containing information are treated in the two main approaches, and we seek to offer a path toward a more unified theoretical stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a case study on a family of American English constructions that will be called the family of approximate comparison constructions. This family has three members, all of which follow the syntactic pattern about as X as Y with X being an adjective, but which allow three related functions: literal comparison, simile and irony. Two cognitive frameworks concern themselves with irony, the cognitive modelling approach and viewpoint approach, and the paper will show that, while the ironic approximate comparison construction calls central assumptions of the cognitive modelling approach to question, the viewpoint account can be refined to handle these cases. In doing so, it furthers our understanding of the cognitive underpinning of irony. The paper provides a corpus-based analysis on the Y slot as well as collostructional analyses on the adjectival X slot in the family of approximate comparison constructions. The results thereof suggest that the ironic approximate comparison construction, in comparison to its literal counterpart, prefers adjectives that convey positively connotated, nuanced attitudes and is formally less variable in the Y slot. The preference for particular adjectives lends further support to the assumption that hearers understand the construction as ironic or literal before speakers complete their utterance. Given that, it is argued that the ironic approximate comparison construction communicates an inherent viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the nominative-partitive subject alternation occurring with constructions containing the Finnish verb löytyä. The material used is taken from corpora and consists of a random sample of 779 observations, analyzed both quantitatively by means of statistical methods, and from a qualitative point of view. The research aims at investigating which variables influence the case alternation of subjects of constructions containing the verb löytyä. The chosen variables are subject number, subject divisibility, subject part of speech, word order, tense, agreement and subject lemma, the only random variable. With the help of regression analysis, the subject case is predicted on the basis of said variables and of interactions between them. The qualitative analysis will also discuss the relationship these morphosyntactic and semantic variables have with the existential interpretations of the clause as well as with the subject quantity and definiteness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some reflections concerning GD no. 298/2021 for the approval of the preliminary theses of the Code of territorial planning, urbanism and constructions. The analysis regards the most important aspects that will be included in the future Code that will bring together the normative acts already existing in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores questions of constructionality and framing in Internet discourse. It proposes a sharper understanding of what, as analysts, we mean by Internet memes, before turning to formal and semantic aspects of Internet memes as multimodal (image-text) constructions. A broad range of examples is considered, but the focus is mainly on image macro memes and labelling memes. Particular attention is focused on the presentational templates that mark out particular meme constructions, and grounds for distinctions between creative constructs and entrenched, conventionalized constructions are offered. The role of frames in the meaning-making mechanisms of memes is investigated, and also explored for a type of Twitter discourse not usually considered alongside established Internet memes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on emphatic sentence fragments of the type Not in a million years!. While such fragments can be partially accounted for by a known type of ellipsis, namely 'stripping', it is argued here that this type is best treated as a construction in its own right, with formal, semantic and pragmatic properties specific to it. One useful concept is what could be called 'negative expansion'. This is a discourse-level construction whereby an already negative clause is followed by one or more negative clause fragments, whose negation is a repetition, rather than cancellation, of the negation in the preceding clause, as in It will never happen. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing S-boxes that are inherently resistant against side-channel attacks is an important problem in cryptography. By using an optimal distinguisher under an additive Gaussian noise assumption, we clarify how a defender (resp., an attacker) can make side-channel attacks as difficult (resp., easy) as possible, in relation with the auto-correlation spectrum of Boolean functions. We then construct balanced Boolean functions that are optimal for each of these two scenarios. Generalizing the objectives for an S-box, we analyze the auto-correlation spectra of some well-known S-box constructions in dimensions at most 8 and compare their intrinsic resiliency against side-channel attacks. Finally, we perform several simulations of side-channel attacks against the aforementioned constructions, which confirm our theoretical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Events of tearing in Asante-Twi (Akan, Niger-Congo, Kwa) are described with two verbs, te 'to tear' and suane 'to tear lengthwise'. The former is generic and describes all forms of tearing. The latter, which is more specific, describes tearing events that are carried out in a lengthwise manner (Agyepong, 2017). Characteristic of verbs, te and suane combine with different objects to derive a range of interpretations that can be categorized as literal or figurative. In this paper, I explore the ways in which te 'to tear' (in particular) interacts with different objects to generate an array of contextualised interpretations. The discussion of the verb and its interpretations are based on three theoretical assumptions. First, from a monosemic-bias perspective (Ruhl, 1989), I espouse a single invariant sense for te and demonstrate that all other interpretations are derived contextually. Second, I propose a three-level semantics (Wilkins and Hill, 1995) relevant for the derivation of the various interpretations of the verb. Third, I show that distinct syntactic constructions (Goldberg, 1995) in which the verb and its arguments occur are key to generating online interpretations. The analysis is based on data gathered from written literary texts, dictionaries, Bible translations, and stimulated-ethnographic interviews with native speakers. I supplement these with constructed examples based on my intuition as a native speaker of Asante-Twi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to provide an inventory of Old English verbs belonging to the class of learning on the grounds of their common semantic components and shared grammatical behavior. The framework of verb classes and alternations and Role and Reference Grammar provide the theoretical basis for this study. Both textual and lexicographical sources have been used to select the data for the analysis of the linking between semantics and syntax with these verbs. The main conclusion of the article is that, considering the constructions and alternations in which they are found in Old English, the verbs (ge)frignan, (ge)leornian, ofācsian, and onfindan are the best candidates for membership of the class of verbs of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case study of grammatical constructions and how their function in a single language (Russian) can be captured through semantic and syntactic classification. Since 2016 an on-going joint project of UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow has been collecting and analyzing multiword grammatical constructions of Russian. The main product is the Russian Constructicon (https://site.uit.no/russian-constructicon/), which, with over two thousand two hundred constructions (and more being continuously added), is arguably the largest openly available constructicon resource for any language. The combination of this large size with depth of analysis, containing both syntactic and semantic tags, makes it possible to view the interrelation of constructions as families and to discover trends in their behavior. Our annotation includes 53 semantic tags of varying frequency, with three tags that are by far more frequent than all the rest, accounting for 30% of the entire inventory of the Russian Constructicon. These three semantic types are Assessment, Attitude, and Intensity, all of which convey a speaker’s evaluation of a topic, in contrast to most of the other tags (such as Time, Manner, and Comparison). Assessment and Attitude constructions are investigated in greater detail in this article. Secondary semantic tags reveal that negative evaluation among these two semantic types is more than twice as frequent as positive evaluation. Examples of negative evaluations are: for Assessment VP tak sebe, as in Na pianino ja igraju tak sebe “I play the piano so-so [lit. thus self]”; for Attitude s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo (NP-Gen), as in S menja xvatit “I’m fed up [lit. from me enough].” In terms of syntax, the most frequent syntactic types of constructions in the Russian Constructicon are clausal constructions [constituting an independent clause like s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo (NP-Gen)] and constructions with the anchor in the role of adverbial modifier (like VP tak sebe). Our semantic and syntactic classification of this large body of Russian constructions makes it possible to postulate patterns of grammatical constructions constituting a radial category with central and peripheral types. Classification of large numbers of constructions reveals systematic relations that structure the grammar of a language.

The building workers sector is one of the most challenging sectors for Human Resources (HR) management. In this work, we propose a solution relying on Blockchain technology and present the design of a Blockchain-Oriented Software system conceived for managing the building workers sector with a focus on workers' safety, and it is guided by sustainable and Agile Methodologies in software design. The proposed approach takes advantage of different features of the Blockchain technology and provides transparency for labor inspectors, grants data integrity and immutability, relies on tamper-proof time stamps for any recorded activity, allows the implementation of Smart Contracts where clauses are automatically respected without the need of a trusted control authority, acknowledges the legal requirements in the field, including the possibility of creating an Operational Safety Plans, which construction companies have to provide, and finally implements the creation of vacant job positions that workers can find and apply to. In order to achieve these goals, we adopt the Blockchain-Oriented Software Engineering (BOSE) methodology to design Blockchain software applications and apply an Agile methodology centered on Blockchain Software development (called ABCDE) for the design and development of the decentralized application. Such a methodology allows us to center the software development around the actors of the system in the specific domain, such as Building Workers, Construction Companies, Labor Inspectors, and so on. In addition, we rely on the software sustainability analysis, based on the five dimensions of sustainability, to evaluate the approach and to avoid mistakes in the system development. We design system elements with specific diagrams, and we divided our system in the on-chain and the out-of-chain components. The implementation of the system, done by using Ethereum and the ERC721 standard, allows us to improve some aspect of the design, to know the deployment and usage costs, and to evaluate the effect of the user interface. Finally, we discuss the effects of our system and its sustainability, and we provide a comparison of our system with a similar per aims but centralized system.

Paraguayan Guarani features a pervasive pattern of aspectual polysemy whereby an underived monovalent predicate conveys both state and change of state senses, such as -o’ysã ‘be cold/get cold.’ The language also allows the derivation of monovalent predicates from causative verbs by the je-/ñe- prefix, yielding two distinct classes. The first one, called Class I, comprises predicates derived from causatives without an underived intransitive counterpart, such as -je-pe’a, from -pe’a ‘open (tr.).’ The second class, called Class II, are predicates derived from causatives with an underived intransitive counterpart, such as -je-jeko and -ñe-moro’ysã, from -jeko ‘break (tr.)’ and -moro’ysã ‘make cold,’ which are associated with the underived intransitives -jeka ‘break (intr.)’ and -o’ysã ‘be cold/get cold,’ respectively. It is shown that the aspectual polysemy pattern extends to je-/ñe-derived predicates, but that its distribution is restricted to Class I predicates. An apparent exception to this are some Class II predicates with a ‘feigned state’ interpretation, such as -ñembotavy ‘pretend to be dumb.’ The evidence reveals, however, that these are not true states, but instead activities. Furthermore, it is argued that the je-/ñe- predicates with this interpretation are not the product of a derivation process but are rather best analyzed as an independent construction.

Extreme climatic phenomena present risk factors for agriculture, health, constructions, etc. and are studied profoundly these past years using extreme value theory. Several relation that describe positive extreme values’ probability Generalized Extreme Value and Gumbel distribution are presented in the article. As a example, we show the maps of characteristic and reference values of the maximum depth of the frozen soil and thickness of hoar-frost with a probability of exceeding per year equal to 0,02, which is equivalent to the mean return interval of 50 years. The obtained results could serve as a base for elaboration of national annexes in constructions.

Finite element models for plate bending problems are constructed on the basis of approximations of moments fields. The bending and twisting moments are approximated in the finite element area by piecewise constant functions. The solution is based on the functional of the additional energy. Algebraic equations of equilibrium of nodes of grid of finite elements are formed using the principle of possible displacements and are included in the functional with the help of Lagrange multipliers. The necessary expressions for rectangular and triangular finite elements are obtained. Calculations of square clamped and hinged-supported plates on the action of uniformly distributed load are performed. Comparison of the obtained results with the results by the finite element method calculations in displacements is presented. It is shown that the presented method of calculating bent plates by the finite element method in stresses has the property of convergence from above. The displacements obtained by this method converge to the exact values from above, while the values of the moments is determined with reserve. When the grid of finite elements is crushed, the difference of the two solutions, in stresses and in displacements, decreases monotonically and the accuracy of the obtained results can be estimated from the value of this difference.

This study focuses on the construction mira que + clause and analyzes the discursive functions it develops when it is fixed. Using a macrosyntactic methodology and based on the fundamentals of construction grammar, the article describes the distribution and behavior of this construction and the procedural contents it develops. In some contexts, mira que acts as intensifier of a valuation word. In others it is combined with gerunds, participles or nouns with negative content. It appears in these cases as a suspended statement. In combination with other sentences it may introduce a justifying argument or a concessive anti-oriented meaning. The distributional context predetermines the argumentative orientation of the construction and makes it work as a discursive element more linked to the procedural dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates two Old English (OE) constructions: "negative inversion" (a negated main clause with a clause-initial verb), and "narrative inversion" (a non-negated main clause with a clause-initial verb). The aim is to determine whether the two patterns may be treated as related "constructions" in Construction Grammar terms, and to identify the factors which promote the use of negative inversion in OE prose. The study shows that in both cases there is a strong interaction between syntax and lexicon: the choice between negative inversion and other patterns in negated main clauses as well as the difference between negative and narrative inversion is to a great extent lexically-based. The analysis also points to other variables underlying this variation such as text type and the use of direct speech. The corpus-based analysis provides a solid empirical basis for the claim that negative inversion and narrative inversion represent two separate constructions, functioning independently in the OE system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts by briefly describing the so‐called truth‐functional approach to sentential operators, typical to logic, as opposed to the more multi‐faceted approach of linguistics. The latter reflects the more complex, substantial relations between the contents of utterances, emphasizing the logico‐semantical relations and functions of sentential operators. However, as an alternative to the pragmatically inclined critique of the truth‐functional approach, the paper proposes two possible directions of explaining the specific content of sentential operators by virtue of which they transcend the role of mere truth functions. Firstly, the paper summarizes our previous investigations into the interactions between sentential operators and (1) the vector of the course of events described by a compound sentence, and (2) the direction of grammatical time captured by a compound sentence. The paper focuses on how this interaction is coordinated with the particular epistemic goal (prediction, explanation etc.) pursued when using the meaning of a complex sentence. Using the concepts of necessary and sufficient conditions, and by characterizing the vectors of condition (the if‐vector), time and relevance (dominance or the epistemic vector), the paper demarcates the rules of correspondence for conditional operators as cases of combinatorics, as described by some linguists. Secondly, based on a distinction between different constructions the same operators as truth‐functions, the paper provides a logico‐semantical explanation of the specific meaning of the else, unless and although connectives, traditionally discussed by linguists. We believe that the extensions proposed here move the camp defending a logico‐semantic approach to sentential operators at least somewhat closer to the camp of linguistic investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case study of grammatical constructions and how their function in a single language (Russian) can be captured through semantic and syntactic classification. Since 2016 an on-going joint project of UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow has been collecting and analyzing multiword grammatical constructions of Russian. The main product is the Russian Constructicon (https://site.uit.no/russian-constructicon/), which, with over two thousand two hundred constructions (and more being continuously added), is arguably the largest openly available constructicon resource for any language. The combination of this large size with depth of analysis, containing both syntactic and semantic tags, makes it possible to view the interrelation of constructions as families and to discover trends in their behavior. Our annotation includes 53 semantic tags of varying frequency, with three tags that are by far more frequent than all the rest, accounting for 30% of the entire inventory of the Russian Constructicon. These three semantic types are Assessment, Attitude, and Intensity, all of which convey a speaker's evaluation of a topic, in contrast to most of the other tags (such as Time, Manner, and Comparison). Assessment and Attitude constructions are investigated in greater detail in this article. Secondary semantic tags reveal that negative evaluation among these two semantic types is more than twice as frequent as positive evaluation. Examples of negative evaluations are: for Assessment VP tak sebe , as in Na pianino ja igraju tak sebe "I play the piano so-so [lit. thus self]"; for Attitude s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo (NP-Gen) , as in S menja xvatit "I'm fed up [lit. from me enough]." In terms of syntax, the most frequent syntactic types of constructions in the Russian Constructicon are clausal constructions [constituting an independent clause like s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo (NP-Gen) ] and constructions with the anchor in the role of adverbial modifier (like VP tak sebe). Our semantic and syntactic classification of this large body of Russian constructions makes it possible to postulate patterns of grammatical constructions constituting a radial category with central and peripheral types. Classification of large numbers of constructions reveals systematic relations that structure the grammar of a language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present a new approach to words of the type zigzag, chitchat, etc. in English. Such words form a formal (phonological) and functional (semantic) pattern in English. We argue that this pattern should be analysed in a construction-based approach, which has clear advantages over other approaches, e.g. analyses involving extragrammaticality or a synchronically productive reduplication process. We propose to extend the construction-based approach beyond its original scope (syntactic constructions) to words that may even no longer be morphologically complex. Finally, we make a tentative suggestion about how the difference between productive and unproductive patterns could be captured in the construction-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas a growing bulk of work has demonstrated that both adults and children are sensitive to frequently occurring word sequences, little is known about the potential role of meaning in the processing of such multiword chunks. Here, we take a first step toward assessing the contribution of meaningfulness in the processing of multiword sequences, using items that varied in chunk meaningfulness. In a phrasal‐decision study, we compared reaction times for triads of three‐word sequences, corresponding to idiomatic expressions, compositional phrases, and phrasal fragments, while controlling for phrase and substring frequencies. Chunk meaningfulness, as assessed by a separate subjective rating study, was found to speed up decision times for all three types of strings: The more meaningful a multiword sequence was judged to be, the faster it was processed, independently of whether it was idiomatic, compositional in nature, or a phrasal fragment. These results highlight the importance of taking meaning into account when considering the processing of multiword chunks, consistent with predictions of construction‐based approaches to language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]