37 research outputs found
Miller: all about Japanese (a review of a review)
No full textTwenty years ago my first book, the Sino-Tibetan: a Conspectus (SIT.). appeared, with Jim Matisoff as contributing editor. The Sino-Tibetan field was even more esoteric in those days than at present and I feared the worst: few would read the book and even fewer appreciate it. I was hardly prepared for what followed, however. Roy Andrew Miller (hereafter RAM) reviewed STC at great length: more accurately, he wrote a 'review' article containing a great number of words, German as well as English.' He found absolutely nothing good about the book, not even (as Matisoff has observed) the paper on which it was printed. He made it all somehow seem to be a vast conspiracy against linguistic scholarship. the product of a collegiality of oligophrenics. Who in the world would read the book, let alone buy it?Published versio
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Proto-Ersuic
No full textThis is a reconstruction of Proto-Ersuic, the ancestor language of Lizu, Tosu, and Ersu, three closely related languages spoken in southwestern Sichuan which are generally considered to be part of the Qiangic branch of Tibeto-Burman. To date, no in-depth historical work has been carried out on these languages. Approximately 800 lexical items are reconstructed based primarily on data from six sources: Mianning Lizu (data collected by the author in Mianning County, Sichuan, in 2008 and 2010), two sources for Kala Lizu (Muli County, one modern and one older source), Naiqu Lizu (Jiulong County), and two varieties of Ersu (Zeluo and Qingshui, both in Ganluo County).Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to Lizu, Tosu, and Ersu, along with basic information for each source to help the reader properly interpret the phonetic transcriptions and parse the individual forms for each language.Chapter 2 presents the Proto-Ersuic syllable canon, providing the skeleton upon which the individual reconstructions are built.Chapters 3 and 4 lay out the complete inventory of Proto-Ersuic initials and rhymes. All reconstructed consonants and vowels are supported by comprehensive cognate sets demonstrating regular sound correspondences across the languages, with exceptions carefully noted.Chapter 5 offers a reconstruction of the lexical tones of Proto-Ersuic, with a general unmarked tone assigned to most words and a second, marked, tone of unclear origin specified on a minority of the lexicon.Chapter 6 presents an outline of shared morphosyntax that can be reconstructed to the Proto-Ersuic level, specifically morphosyntax related to nouns, verbs, and numerals/classifiers.Chapter 7 brings together all the sound changes that yielded the regular correspondences presented in Chapters 3 and 4, organizing them by language, and ordering them chronologically. From these sound changes emerges a picture of the internal structure (i.e. subgrouping) of Ersuic.Chapter 8 takes a top-down approach, examining the sound changes from Proto-Tibeto-Burman to Proto-Ersuic and attempting to find regular patterns in the development of Proto-Tibeto-Burman rhymes, initials, and prefixes. Comparisons with other languages and branches of Tibeto-Burman are made as well in an attempt to uncover new roots.The final chapter (Chapter 9) addresses the place of Proto-Ersuic in Tibeto-Burman, summarizing current views on the matter and offering some speculations on how the results of the present study might help us decide how Proto-Ersuic fits in the larger Tibeto-Burman family tree
Three essays on evolving regulatory climates and market adjustment strategies
No full textThis dissertation consists of three empirical analyses examining the interactive and evolving nature of government regulations and how the regulated industries respond to the changes in the regulatory climate. Using the U.S. pulp and paper mills as an example, the three essays bring together a number of strands of literature in environmental economics and policy studies discussing how changes in the U.S. environmental policy are shaped by industry concerns and which strategies firms choose in order to adjust to the changes in policy. Essay 1 examines if, in addition to the standard input factors, indirect costs associated with tax and environmental policies affect papermakers’ ‘stay put’ investment decisions. The findings suggest that state environmental stringency has a negative impact on investments, but it is statistically insignificant and higher taxes do not deter investments. The Essay 2 studies whether voluntary abatement and prevention efforts at pulp and paper mills affects regulatory stringency they face. The analysis tests the hypotheses of ‘responsive regulation’ and whether regulators are driven by numerical pollution targets or budgetary constraints. The findings suggest that voluntary pollution abatement and prevention have greater impact on regulatory stringency than government budgets. Finally, Essay 3 analyzes the relationship between pollution prevention (P2) policy instruments and adoption of P2 modifications. The study tests the hypotheses of whether P2 policy instruments have positive impact on P2 adoptions. The results suggest that the policy instruments have different effects on different types of P2 modifications and that regulatory and political threat is a strong predictor of P2 adoptions.Ph.D
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Considerations in Fulminant Airway Obstruction
No full textIntra-Extracardiac Versus Extracardiac Fontan Modifications: Comparison of Early Outcomes
No full textBackground. The intra-extracardiac (IE) Fontan modification has advantages over the lateral tunnel modification. A direct comparison of IE to the extracardiac (EC) modification so far has not been done. This study compared IE to EC Fontan with respect to early post-operative outcomes. Methods. We retrospectively compared outcomes of the Fontan operation using the IE or EC conduit modification between January 2012 and December 2016. IE and EC groups were compared using univariate and multivariable regression analysis. To eliminate the confounding effects of fenestration, repeat intergroup comparison was performed after excluding non-fenestrated patients. Results. There were 81 patients grouped according to Fontan modification into the IE group (n = 43) or EC group (n = 38). The Fontan was fenestrated in 100% of the IE group but in only 55% of the EC group (p < 0.001). Cardiopulmonary bypass time was shorter for the IE group (74 vs 103, p < 0.001) The IE patients had median cross-clamp time of 34 minutes, whereas only 2 patients in the EC group required cross-clamping (35 and 95 minutes; p < 0.001). The IE group had significantly shorter median duration of pleural effusion (8 days vs 11 days, p = 0.007) and hospital length of stay (9 days vs 13 days, p = 0.001) than the EC group. Multivariable linear regression analysis revealed that the IE modification was independently associated with reduced duration of pleural effusion (p = 0.004) and hospital length of stay (p = 0.003). Presence of any unfavorable hemodynamics on preoperative assessment was also associated with longer duration of pleural effusion and hospital length of stay for patients with fenestration. Conclusions. The IE Fontan modification may be associated with reduced duration of postoperative pleural effusion and hospital length of stay compared with the EC modification. (C) 2019 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeon
Directional Pre-verbal Particles in Hakha Lai
No full textHakha Lai is mainly spoken in Hakha and Thantlang areas, and their vicinities in Chin State, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). It is also spoken in the adjacent areas of India and Bangladesh. Lai speakers are about 100,000 people. Lai is also used extensively as a second language by speakers of other Chin languages in the Chin Hills.The data in H. Lai are transcribed in both standard orthography as well as a phonemic orthography developed and used when the first author was a consultant for a two-semesters long field method class (Fall 1997 – Spring 1998) conducted by Prof. James A. Matisoff at UC Berkeley. H. Lai has five pairs of directional pre-verbal particles which describe the “where” of the participants and the “how” of the actions involved. This paper analyzes these deictic phenomena in terms of how the interlocutors behave in relation to position, distance, and movement, their diachronic origins, and their other functions
Risk Assessment and Anesthetic Management of Patients with Williams Syndrome: a Comprehensive Review
No full textMorphological Complexity and Conceptualization : The Human Body
No full textIn this squib, I want to argue that the morphological structure of words is, at least to some extent, motivated. As an example I have choosen the partonomic (and for the less part taxonomic) nomenclature of the human body. While important work by Brown et alii (1973), Anderson (1978) and Schladt (1997) exists on this topic, these analyses focus on the conceptualization of body-parts and their semantics, but not on their morphological representation.
In the following, I want to check two predictions about the morphological complexity of lexical items denoting parts of the human body. The first assumption is that the most canonical body-parts are always expressed by mono-lexematic items. The second one consists in the assumption that body-parts of the lowest levels in the hierarchy are always morphologically complex. A set of six body-parts has been analysed in 27 languages. The set consists of two canonical (HEAD and EAR) and of one from the lowest level of the hierarchy (TOENAIL). For this I have adopted a sample from Schladt (1997) and a small one compiled by mysel
