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Based on six detailed case studies of languages in which focus is marked morphosyn-tactically, we propose a novel formal theory of focus marking, which can capture these as well as the familiar English-type prosodic focus marking....
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Based on six detailed case studies of languages in which focus is marked morphosyn-tactically, we propose a novel formal theory of focus marking, which can capture these as well as the familiar English-type prosodic focus marking. Special attention is paid to the patterns of focus syncretism, that is, when different size and/or location of focus are indistinguishably realized by the same form. The key ingredients to our approach are that complex constituents (not just words) may be directly focally marked, and that the choice of focal marking is governed by blocking.
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The immediately preverbal position has been argued to be the default focus position in Turkish. In absence of any overt focus markers, the constituent in this position is considered to carry sentential stress and neutral informati...
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The immediately preverbal position has been argued to be the default focus position in Turkish. In absence of any overt focus markers, the constituent in this position is considered to carry sentential stress and neutral information for canonical word-order sentences and focus is projected to the whole sentence in the form of broad focus. In non-canonical word-order sentences, the immediately preverbal constituent is presumed to carry focal stress and the focused constituent would receive narrow focus. This paper tested this claim experimentally. The paper also investigated if there were any differences in the cognitive operations associated with processing and revising focus in canonical and non-canonical sentences. There were a sentence completion task and an eye-tracking experiment. The sentence completion data and the eye-tracking data supported the theoretical predictions: the immediately preverbal position was associated with default focus in Turkish when no pitch accentuation or other focus markers were available. The eye-tracking data further showed that changes to word-order were perceived as cues for broad versus narrow focus marking. The participants' processing of and revision from narrow focus were costlier than processing broad focus and assigning narrow focus for the first time. We argue, in line with previous research, that this may be due to deeper encoding of focused information in memory or heavier memory load resulting from keeping a set of alternatives of the focused constituent when it has contrastive meaning.
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The immediately preverbal position has been argued to be the default focus position in Turkish. In absence of any overt focus markers, the constituent in this position is considered to carry sentential stress and neutral informati...
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The immediately preverbal position has been argued to be the default focus position in Turkish. In absence of any overt focus markers, the constituent in this position is considered to carry sentential stress and neutral information for canonical word-order sentences and focus is projected to the whole sentence in the form of broad focus. In non-canonical word-order sentences, the immediately preverbal constituent is presumed to carry focal stress and the focused constituent would receive narrow focus. This paper tested this claim experimentally. The paper also investigated if there were any differences in the cognitive operations associated with processing and revising focus in canonical and non-canonical sentences. There were a sentence completion task and an eye-tracking experiment. The sentence completion data and the eye-tracking data supported the theoretical predictions: the immediately preverbal position was associated with default focus in Turkish when no pitch accentuation or other focus markers were available. The eye-tracking data further showed that changes to word-order were perceived as cues for broad versus narrow focus marking. The participants' processing of and revision from narrow focus were costlier than processing broad focus and assigning narrow focus for the first time. We argue, in line with previous research, that this may be due to deeper encoding of focused information in memory or heavier memory load resulting from keeping a set of alternatives of the focused constituent when it has contrastive meaning.
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The present article introduces a theory of (morpho-)syntactic focus marking on nominal categories in Bura, a Central Chadic SVO language spoken in the northeast of Nigeria. Our central claim is that the particle an plays a crucial...
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The present article introduces a theory of (morpho-)syntactic focus marking on nominal categories in Bura, a Central Chadic SVO language spoken in the northeast of Nigeria. Our central claim is that the particle an plays a crucial role in the marking of subject and non-subject focus. We put forward a uniform analysis of an as a focus copula that selects for syntactic predicates of type and a focused constituent of type . This uniform semantic representation is transparently mapped onto different syntactic structures: In a clause with a focused subject, the focus copula appears between the subject in SpecTP and the predicative VP. On the other hand, syntactically focused non-subjects are fronted and appear in a bi-clausal cleft structure that contains the focus copula and a relative cleft-remnant. The non-uniform analysis of focus marking is further supported by the structure of predicative constructions, in which the focus copula separates the focused subject and the adjectival or nominal predicate. It is also shown that alternative unified analyses fail to account for the full range of Bura data. The latter part of the article provides an analysis of the Bura cleft construction. Based on syntactic and semantic evidence, we come to the conclusion that the clefted constituent is base-generated in its initial surface position, and that an empty operator moves within the relative clause. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the potential conceptual reasons behind the observed subject/non-subject asymmetry in Bura.
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Focus is cross-linguistically associated with a number of different strategies, such as fronting, clefting, markers, and prosody. In some cases, the choice between one strategy or another is determined by language-specific rules, ...
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Focus is cross-linguistically associated with a number of different strategies, such as fronting, clefting, markers, and prosody. In some cases, the choice between one strategy or another is determined by language-specific rules, while in others, two or more strategies seem to be optional, and thus, somehow "unpredictable". In this experimental study, we investigate the syntactic strategies employed in object focusing in Finnish and in Italian by examining the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features underlying the choice of a specific Focus strategy. In particular, the present experiment is aimed to investigate two strategies employed in both languages for object Focus realization, namely, Focus in situ and fronting, in order to verify whether the choice between them is influenced by a specific type of feature, a combination of Focus-related features, the verb category involved, or the interplay between these three factors. The incidence of alternative constructions, in particular clefting in Italian and the -hAn discourse marker in Finnish, is also taken into consideration, and relevant asymmetries are analyzed in a comprehensive, comparative account.
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Focus is cross-linguistically associated with a number of different strategies, such as fronting, clefting, markers, and prosody. In some cases, the choice between one strategy or another is determined by language-specific rules, ...
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Focus is cross-linguistically associated with a number of different strategies, such as fronting, clefting, markers, and prosody. In some cases, the choice between one strategy or another is determined by language-specific rules, while in others, two or more strategies seem to be optional, and thus, somehow "unpredictable". In this experimental study, we investigate the syntactic strategies employed in object focusing in Finnish and in Italian by examining the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic features underlying the choice of a specific Focus strategy. In particular, the present experiment is aimed to investigate two strategies employed in both languages for object Focus realization, namely, Focus in situ and fronting, in order to verify whether the choice between them is influenced by a specific type of feature, a combination of Focus-related features, the verb category involved, or the interplay between these three factors. The incidence of alternative constructions, in particular clefting in Italian and the -hAn discourse marker in Finnish, is also taken into consideration, and relevant asymmetries are analyzed in a comprehensive, comparative account.
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Apply It! center dot Explore how attentional focused cues affect performance based on exercise modality and intensity. center dot Identify how and when to apply cues that target internal or external focus to optimize training for clients.
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A study of energy transfer in a small plasma focus device has been carried out during its axial phase. The snow-plough model has been used in the simulation as a basic model for the calculation of plasma dynamics. The energy trans...
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A study of energy transfer in a small plasma focus device has been carried out during its axial phase. The snow-plough model has been used in the simulation as a basic model for the calculation of plasma dynamics. The energy transferred to the plasma is calculated by considering the work done by the electromagnetic piston during the axial phase. It was found that the plasma energy calculated by this model agrees well with the experimental data within the pressure range of 1 mbar to 4 mbar if the mass shedding effect is included in the model. According to the present computation, the energy transferred into the plasma, in the case of a plasma focus with 2.3 kJ initial energy operated with nitrogen gas within the pressure range of 1 to 4 mbar, is between 224 J to 250 J. This corresponds to energy transfer efficiency of 9.6% to 10.7%. The mass shedding factor decreases from 0.23 to 0.069 with increasing pressure. Correspondingly, the energy transfer efficiency changes slightly at a higher pressure.
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Abstract Post-focus compression (PFC), in which words following focus are compressed in F 0 and intensity, is recently found to be effective in encoding focus. Recent studies find that PFC is present in Egyptian, Hijazi and Lebane...
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Abstract Post-focus compression (PFC), in which words following focus are compressed in F 0 and intensity, is recently found to be effective in encoding focus. Recent studies find that PFC is present in Egyptian, Hijazi and Lebanese Arabic, and hence they are classified as +PFC languages. However, there are languages from the same family language which differ mainly in terms of the presence and absence of PFC. The current study investigated the production and perception of prosodic focus marking in Makkan Arabic, an under-researched Arabic dialect. Systematic acoustic analyses and statistical tests show that (a)?the on-focus word is realized by expanding the excursion size, increasing the F 0 and strengthening the intensity of its stressed syllable, (b)?information and contrastive focus are not prosodically distinguishable, (c) Makkan Arabic lacks PFC, and (d)?focus recognition is low compared to Hijazi Arabic (+PFC), Taiwanese and Taiwan Mandarin (other??PFC languages). The new findings, taken together with recent findings, suggest that (1) the prosodic encoding of focus is different across Arabic dialects productively and perceptually, and (2) the on-focus raising is not a sufficient factor in recognizing prosodic cues to focus. These results contribute to broadening our understanding of different prosodic focus markings cross-linguistically and cross-dialectally.
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In shape from focus (SFF) methods, image focus volume enhancement is an important issue for acquiring accurate depth maps. Mostly, conventional approaches do focus aggregation locally to enhance the focus volume, which may not sup...
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In shape from focus (SFF) methods, image focus volume enhancement is an important issue for acquiring accurate depth maps. Mostly, conventional approaches do focus aggregation locally to enhance the focus volume, which may not suppress noisy focus measurements properly and consequently, may provide deteriorated depth maps. Multiresolution fusion-based method is proposed for image focus volume enhancement. First, an initial focus volume is obtained by applying a conventional focus measure. Then, a pyramid of focus volumes is computed using Gaussian filters and subsampling. Focus measures from various focus volumes at different levels are merged into a single resultant focus volume. Finally, the depth map is obtained from the resultant focus volume by maximizing the focus measure in the optical-axis direction. According to the best of my knowledge, the cross-scale aggregation has never been used in enhancing the image focus volume in SFF. The proposed method is evaluated through the experiments using image sequences of real microscopic and simulated objects. Results comparisons based on root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the focus volume and depth map. The proposed fusion method of volumes is a simple but effective. The idea of cross-scale aggregation of focus measures is effective in providing precise focus measures that consequently, provide accurate depth map. In future work, it will further be explored and a more sophisticated and optimization-based fusion algorithm will be applied.
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