Incipient Change Research Articles

From space to time and beyond: A corpus inquiry into the grammaticalization patterns of a/one step away from

ABSTRACT Cross-linguistically, spatial expressions display a propensity to undergo semantic extensions, thus frequently giving rise to grammatical markers. Drawing on diachronic material derived from the Corpus of Historical American English and synchronic data extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, this study reports on a hitherto unexplored, incipient change of this kind, namely that affecting the multiword string a/one step away from. It is shown that with the conventionalization of the invited inference of closeness, the construction at issue was reanalyzed as a complex preposition, functioning initially as an exponent of prospective aspect, then additionally as a similitude marker, and finally also as an approximator. This chronology further finds reflection in the current functional gradience of a/one step away from, in that among its grammatical instances, which amount to slightly more than half the tokens in the sample, aspectual uses constitute the largest proportion, followed by similative occurrences and degree modifier attestations. At the distributional level, the investigated case of grammaticalization manifests itself in the highly confined determination and modification patterns of the form step, counterbalanced by the entire expression’s compatibility with inanimate subjects as well as host-class expansion to abstract NPs, verbal gerunds, and adjectives.

Global warming is shifting the relationships between fire weather and realized fire-induced CO2 emissions in Europe

Fire activity has significantly changed in Europe over the last decades (1980–2020s), with the emergence of summers attaining unprecedented fire prone weather conditions. Here we report a significant shift in the non-stationary relationship linking fire weather conditions and fire intensity measured in terms of CO2 emissions released during biomass burning across a latitudinal gradient of European IPCC regions. The reported trends indicate that global warming is possibly inducing an incipient change on regional fire dynamics towards increased fire impacts in Europe, suggesting that emerging risks posed by exceptional fire-weather danger conditions may progressively exceed current wildfire suppression capabilities in the next decades and impact forest carbon sinks.

Economic Impact of HIV in the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy Era - Reflections Looking Forward.

The main data on HIV in high-income countries from the standpoint of health economics are updated and discussed. Specifically, issues surrounding the economic impact of HIV are addressed for health care and occupational perspectives. We review the main epidemiological data on the prevalence of disease and foreseeable changes in patterns within the coming years. Recent research on health care costs of HIV/AIDS and the occupational situation of HIV+ people are discussed. In high-income countries, there is an incipient change in trends that indicate that an increasing percentage of the intermediate-age HIV+ population will age prematurely, presenting more frequently comorbidities and becoming more exposed to frailty situations. Accordingly, health-care systems should have to plan their resources to accommodate new determinants of healthcare costs in the HIV+ population. On the occupational side, the decreased life expectancy of HIV+ persons, coupled with more severe health issues, on average may prompt early -retirement of this population from the labor market.

Strategic Actions in the Face of Uncertainty

In the face of volatile change and mounting uncertainty, firms may have to adapt rapidly. We highlight the mandates of strategic leaders who know how to develop organizational capabilities that allow for fast as well as slow action as circumstances dictate. In a world where unexpected twists and turns can overturn the most iron-clad handbook of standard operating procedures, strategic leaders remain a final, crucial line of defense. Once organizations have sensed incipient change in their environment, and understand its potential impact better, the question becomes what to do practically.

Gender and capacity building: A multi-layered study of empowerment

This study shifts the focus from building individual capacities to understanding the relational acts through which empowerment and education acquire their value and meaning. Conceptually, the paper employs social cognitive theory to explore the interplay between social learning, relational agency, and culture. This interplay builds the foundation for the development of an empowerment model of capacity building that proposes an interlinked system of community capacity and empowerment dimensions. The model is explored in the context of the Education for All project in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The research combines participant observation, qualitative interviews and visual methods to provide rich insights to situated knowledges of learning and empowerment. Findings reveal that the meaning of education equates to the capacity to aspire to a different life. This problematizes the way gender and gender relations are understood in the rural Berber villages. The girls’ education unsettles the repeating cycle of female educational deprivation, and leads them to become role models within their communities. This instills the image of educated women in community consciousness, leading to an incipient change in perceptions of what girls and women can be and do.

En los albores de un cambio lingüístico: factores condicionantes y fases en la inserción del artículo en relativas oblicuas del siglo XVIII

Abstract Based on a corpus of ego-documents (mainly private letters) from the 18th century, we offer the results of a variationist analysis about the insertion of the article in relative clauses headed by preposition («la casa en (la) que...»). The data show that, despite the remarkable vitality that still enjoys the form without the article (almost categorical in the Golden Age Spanish), several contexts begin to favor the diffusion of the innovative variant in that seminal period. As usual in early stages of language change, the explanatory hierarchy begins with structural factors, several among which are selected as significant by the regression analysis. Nevertheless, the selection of time as well as some distributions in the social and stylistic axes of variation allow us to guess the existence of various phases in this incipient change. The first one, developed throughout the first half of the century, is set up as a spontaneous change from below, at the request of the subaltern classes, the younger people, and the most spontaneous contexts. However, towards the end of the century, this change seems to have been stabilized and even reversed in some way, driven now by the privileged classes, who favor the return to the old variant.

An Evaluation of Intelligibility Debate in Pakistan

The English language came to the subcontinent through the British who ruled it for more than 100 years in the 17th century. Now the people of Pakistan and India are sandwiched between a more formal, sophisticated and literal English Language of the British and informal and casual English Language of the Americans. English is a lingua Franca which is acknowledged as a store house of knowledge and window onto world. At the start of the 21st century, most applied linguists were familiar with the fact that English is now spoken by a considerably greater number of non-native speakers than the native speakers. This incipient change in the status of English as an International language has opened a new vista of debate, namely, the intelligibility debate. It is assumed that English as an International Language has attained such a niche that its ownership by some group or some nation cannot be accepted as an authority, as it is connecting people across the globe through its mutual intelligibility trait. Those who can use it proficiently and even have command over its idiomatic use, whatever accent they may have must be acknowledged. The idea of following RP has been challenged by linguists like Jennifer Jenkins, Barbra Sieldhofer, Jonna Przedlacka, Katerzyna, etc and defended by Peter Trudgill and others of his school insist on the importance of a standard accent to be followed. This school says that every language has its own peculiar patterns which should be maintained while acquiring it otherwise that particular language will lose its peculiar flavor and identity and would gradually be lost like many other languages which could not resist simplification campaigns and eventually lost their originality. The current study explores this issue in Pakistani academic and professional situation among Pakistani Language practitioners with a survey based on the views of students and teachers through a questionnaire. The results show that all groups are in favor of an eclectic approach as is approved by Jenkins in her LFC proposal to NNS of English worldwide to facilitate convenience and ease. This study will initiate debates about an alternative way to teach and learn English as lingua franca.

Scapular Glenoid Observations of Six Canis lupus dingo

Scapular skeletal remains of six 20 th century dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) were examined. One had been an elderly zoo resident, and five were taken in the wild. The zoo specimen and one wild-caught specimen each revealed an unusual bilateral ossified feature of the scapular glenoid fossa. The roughly triangular feature is visually similar to the appearance of a SLAP tear (glenoid superior labral tear, anterior-posterior) in humans. However, the SLAP tear injury is not compatible with current understanding of biceps tendon attachment on the domestic dog scapula. Additionally, the pattern of lateral peri-articular rimming in these six specimens suggests possible incipient pathological change. We discuss the differential diagnoses for these observations.

Fishing in the gene pool – how useful was the catch?

A commentary on the highlights of the 2013 EUCARPIA (the European Associationc for Research on Plant Breeding) Plant Genetic Resources Section meeting at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp is presented here. The central theme of the meeting was the use of plant genetic resources in pre-breeding programmes, particularly in the context of incipient climate change and human population pressure.

Poetología y metapoesía en Teócrito: sobre el motivo de los cantores itinerantes en el Idilio VII

My own approach to Theoc. 7 is to analyze closely the rare motif of Simichidas and the goatherd Lycidas as wandering singers. Surely, modern critics have overestimated the fact that the meeting of Simichidas and Lycidas is modelled after various scenes of supernatural encounter in Homer or, especially, in Hesiod. In this article I attempt explore a metapoetical reading of Theoc. 7. 1-51 to separate Theocritean poetology from Callimachean polemics, and contextualize the incipient change from the old paradigm of pastor-poeta into the new one of poeta-pastor. This reversal is basic to the discussion on the Theocritean status of ‘bucolic’ poet in accordance with Philitean aesthetics of poeta doctus.

Preliminary Study of Incipient Electrical Impedance Change and Detection of Brain Tissue after Ionization Injury

Large doses of ionizing radiation can cause acute radiation disease, which is likely to lead to death in severe cases. Secondary injuries may result in major illnesses such as extensive hemorrhage, anemia and DNA mutation. Therefore, early detection of ionization injury and its degree is of great significance to treatment, which has also been the goal of radiology domain. Some evidence has been found that normal brain tissue has lower electrical impedance than ionization injured brain tissue. Although resistivity based on impedance measurements needs further investigation, electrical impedance could be used as an indicator for incipient changes in brain tissue. In this paper, we propose a systematic demonstration of electrical impedance imaging technique used for the detection of ionization injury of brain tissue. By comparing normal brain tissue of rabbits (control group) and ionization injured brain tissue of rabbits (experimental group) we observed that the experimental group showed a striking contrast with the control group. During a span of twelve hours the one dimension impedance of the former group has ascended remarkably and in two-dimensional images the location and area of the injury can be observed. The results of the completed experiments suggest that electrical impedance [1]tomography (EIT) may become an effective technique to detect incipient ionization injury.

More or less travel: personal mobility trends in the Swedish population focusing gender and cohort

This study explores mainstream trends and countertrends in the development of spatial mobility in the Swedish population. Tracing incipient change in travel behaviour is important for understanding the preconditions for social and environmental sustainability. We use data from the Swedish national travel surveys, conducted intermittently over almost 30years (1978–2006), covering both daily and long-distance mobility. International travel is included for the last decade. With respect to mainstream trends, the results primarily concern the continuation of the spatial extension of overall mobility and of the motorization and individualization of travel modes, as well as an upward convergence between women’s and men’s mobility. When it comes to countertrends, substantial reductions in daily mobility and long-distance domestic travel are observed among the young.

'Extensive fields of our forefathers': Some Prospect Drawings of Common Fields in Northamptonshire by Peter Tillemans, c. 1719–21

This article presents a number of prospect drawings of various parts of Northamptonshire, made by the Flemish artist, Peter Tillemans, between 1719 and 1721. These views provide the rural historian with what are probably the earliest artistic representations of the unenclosed landscape in England and a unique visual reference to Northamptonshire's open fields and commons just before the parliamentary enclosure movement began. The article will examine these views to demonstrate first of all how the prospect compositional style was suited to the artistic treatment of Northamptonshire's open fields and commons, and to show that this landscape was more varied and not as bleak as later pro-enclosure commentators would have it. It will also be demonstrated how some views appear to suggest that common land continued to play an accepted part in the county's economic and cultural development at this time, while others clearly give an indication of incipient and inevitable change in the landscape as the century progressed.

The Road to Modern Consumer Society. Changes in Everyday Life in the Rural Basque Country in the Early Twentieth Century

The aim of this article is to show the process of transformation of everyday life in the rural Basque society of the beginning of the twentieth century. It is generally accepted the vision of the rural Basque Country situated in the past and contrary to the changes of modern society. However, a detailed research shows a different condition and the incipient change in different aspects of everyday life. The increase of literacy thanks to the development of the educational system, the improvement of the means of transport, the birth of an incipient consumer society and the appearance of modern leisure are examples of this change in a supposedly ‘old fashioned’ rural Basque Country. This process of transformation took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century but most evidently in the beginning of the following century, which places the social development of the rural Basque Country sooner than it had been thought.

Eutrophication-induced changes in Lake Nakaumi, southwest Japan

Lake Nakaumi, southwest Japan, is an enclosed lagoon characterized by polyhaline and halocline conditions. Since the last century, its ecological state has been altered by eutrophication. We used a paleolimnological approach and studied multiple proxies, including chemical compounds, diatoms, foraminifera and molluscs, to infer the eutrophication history of the ecosystem. Eutrophication in Lake Nakaumi was associated with several factors, including increased nutrient loading, input of herbicides, and dike building since the 1920s. The ecological condition of this lake was divided into several stages that reflect the eutrophication process after the 1940s. A catastrophic “regime shift” from a clear state with aquatic vegetation to a turbid one with phytoplankton occurred in the early 1950s. Environmental degradation in the Honjo area, a part of Lake Nakaumi, was attributed primarily to physical changes caused by the construction of an enclosing dike. Eutrophication occurred almost simultaneously with the physical changes to the Honjo area in the 1970s. Until recently, no regime shift was observed in this area, though the core-top sediments show possible symptoms of incipient change.

Four interacting aspects of a geological survey knowledge system

The developing cyberinfrastructure affects the knowledge system by which geological surveys collect, represent and communicate their knowledge, and thereby influences their view of the geology. Consequences for four interacting aspects of the overall system (infrastructure, business models, geological framework and surveying methods) are outlined. Although each reflects a different area of expertise, all aspects must work together to support an incipient change of emphasis in survey work—from publishing maps and supporting documents, to contributing to a whole-Earth knowledge system that responds flexibly to user needs.

Watching English grammar change: a case study on complement selection in British and American English

This article traces the complement selection properties of the adjective accustomed from the eighteenth century to the present. The adjective has frequently selected sentential complements, but the study illustrates a major change affecting the form of such complements. In the eighteenth century they were regularly of the to infinitive type, but today they are almost as regularly of the to -ing type. Both syntactic and semantic factors are identified in the article as having an impact on the change. The study also compares the pace of the change in British and American English, arguing that incipient change was discernible in both varieties as early as the nineteenth century. It is argued further that, at the present time, the change has been completed more fully in American English than in British English. This conclusion is reached by considering sentences with extraction or filler–gap dependencies. The data in the article come from large electronic corpora.

CURRENT RESEARCH ON INTELLIGIBILITY IN ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

Recognition of incipient change in the status of English as an international language has yielded a small but growing area of research addressing nonnative speaker to nonnative speaker (NNS-NNS) interaction. Issues concerning intelligibility are a key focus of this investigation, particularly as native speaker models have limited relevance to these new contexts of use. This review highlights current research from diverse areas of applied linguistics that have addressed aspects of intelligibility in both experimental and real-world settings. Current findings suggest that the processes by which understanding is achieved in English as a lingua franca (ELF) interaction are qualitatively different from those observed in native speaker (NS)–based interaction, and that this has implications for a number of research and practice areas. Following a definition of terms, the chapter surveys current research and considers its influence on current trends in English language teaching. Possible directions for further research are also considered.

Diffusion of interstitial muonium, Mu T, in a 13C diamond

We report on the motional behavior of the tetrahedral interstitial muonium (Mu T) the chemical analogue, and light isotope of neutral atomic hydrogen, in a 90% enriched 13C diamond. Muonium forms after implantation of positive muons into diamond. In the 13C diamond, the muon spin relaxes due to the motion of Mu T against the background of randomly oriented spins of the host nuclei. Spin-lattice relaxation of the initially spin-polarized muons, in their capacity as nuclei of the Mu T atoms, was studied as a function of magnetic field and temperature in the ranges 20 mT–0.4 T and 10–400 K, respectively. The extracted hop rate is large, τ c −1∼10 11 Hz, indicating fast diffusion of Mu T, as expected for such a light interstitial atom. Its approximately constant value over the entire measured temperature range suggests weakly scattered coherent tunneling rather than incoherent or phonon-assisted tunneling, consistent with the high Debye temperature of diamond and the shallow interstitial potential for neutral hydrogen or muonium. There are indications of increasing localization of the wave-packet, i.e., of an incipient change to incoherent tunneling, towards the higher temperatures. Thermal conversion of the mobile Mu T state to the stable bond-centered muonium (Mu BC) state prevents the diffusion of Mu T being explored beyond 400 K.

Bonding to titanium.

The recent synthesis of a crystalline compound containing Ti bonded to cyclopentadienyl and a substituted dienyl fragment prompted the question of whether Ti-C contacts that were found to be shorter than other such bonded contacts in the same molecule should be considered as short nonbonded contacts or "nonclassical metal-to-saturated-carbon atom interactions", fitting the description of agostic interactions. This question has a unique answer within the framework of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM). QTAIM uses the measurable electron density to assign a molecular structure and the physics of an open system to determine the nature of the bonded interactions. All of the classical bonding descriptors, when recast in terms of the topologies of the electron density and the pair density, are faithfully recovered when QTAIM is applied to the hydrocarbon framework of the Ti complex, thereby justifying its application to the analysis of the Ti-C interactions. No bond paths are found to link the Ti to the carbons exhibiting the "short contacts", and the topology of the density gives no indication of an incipient change in structure that would result in their formation.