Search
Now showing items 1-7 of 7
Loanwords and the perceptual map : a perspective from MaxEnt Learning
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
This dissertation examines the predictions of two computational models of grammar within the domain of loanword phonology. These models, formulated within a Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) framework, have been shown to be successful ...
The linear limitations of syntactic derivations
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
In this dissertation, I identify and analyze several new generalizations about how phrasal displacement and discontinuity are constrained in natural language. These patterns reveal, I argue, that many limitations of syntactic ...
Doing : an essay on causation, events, and action in the most general sense
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
Our world is populated not just by things, such as bombs, matches, and people, but also by events, like explosions, ignitions, and decisions. Part I, "Doings", is centered around my attempt to capture the nature of events. ...
The empirical relevance of metaphysics
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
Are metaphysical debates relevant to ordinary empirical inquiry? This dissertation collects a series of papers which answers in the affirmative. The first part of the dissertation is concerned with inductive inference. I ...
The structure of attitude reports : representing context in grammar
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
This dissertation argues for a view of grammar that encodes certain facts about the discourse context in the narrow syntax. In particular, the recurring claim that there are clause peripheral elements that correspond to a ...
Consent and Concepts
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
This dissertation lays out the groundwork for building a theory of radical consent and autonomy. Chapter 1, "Framing Consent," argues for a context-sensitive account of the semantic content of consent claims, and presents ...
On what language is
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020)
What is language? I defend the view that language is the practical capacity for partaking in communication with linguistic signs. To have a language just is to know how to communicate with it. I argue that this view -- ...