Abstract not found

Abstract not found

The set of English modal verbs is widely recognized to communicate two broad clusters of meanings: epistemic and root modal meanings. A number of researchers have claimed that root meanings are acquired earlier than epistemic ones; this claim has subsequently been employed in the linguistics literature as an argument for the position that English modal verbs are polysemous (Sweetser, 1990). In this paper I offer an alternative explanation for the later emergence of epistemic interpretations by linking them to the development of the child's theory of mind (Wellman, 1990); if correct, this hypothesis might have important implications for the shape of the semantics of modal verbs.

We present a design for an interactive American Sign Language game geared for language development for deaf children. In addition to work on game design, we show how Wizard of Oz techniques can be used to facilitate our work on ASL recognition. We report on two Wizard of Oz studies which demonstrate our technique and maximize our iterative design process. We also detail specific implications to the design raised from working with deaf children and possible solutions.

This paper was originally written while the author was at the University of California at Berkeley

We present a qualitative, exploratory study to examine the space of electronic based communication (e.g. instant messaging, short message service, email) by Deaf teenagers in the greater Atlanta metro area. We answer the basic questions of who, what, where, when, and how to understand Deaf teenage use of electronic, mobile communication technologies. Our findings reveal that both Deaf and hearing teens share similar communication goals such as communicating quickly, effectively, and with a variety of people. Distinctions between the two populations emerge from language differences. The teenagers ’ perspectives allow us to view electronic communication not from a technologist’s point of view, but from the “use-centric ” view of teenagers who are indifferent to the underlying infrastructure supporting this communication. This study suggests several unique features of the Deaf teens ’ communication as well as further research questions and directions for study. 1

It is widely assumed in the developmental literature that certain classes of modal expression appear later in language acquisition than others; specifically, epistemic interpretations lag behind non-epistemic (or root) interpretations. An explanation for these findings is proposed in terms of the child's developing theory of mind, i.e. the ability to attribute to oneself and others mental representations, and to reason inferentially about them. It is hypothesized that epistemic modality crucially implicates theory-of-mind abilities and is therefore expected to depend on prior developments in the child's ability to handle representations of mental representations. In support of this hypothesis, it is shown that autistic individuals (who arguably possess a deficient theory-of-mind mechanism) have difficulty with epistemics.

CONTENTS Introduction. The expression of modality in Korean i I. Scope of investigation i II. Structure of thesis i III. General expository practice ii III.I. Abbreviations ii III.II. Data transcription iii III.III. Data glossing iv III.IV. Data sources and source abbreviations v Chapter 1 Preliminaries 1 1.1. Modality 1 1.1.1. The concept of modality 1 1.1.2. A notional model of modality 5 1.1.3. A taxonomy of modalities 13 1.1.3.1. The basic dichotomy - epistemic and deontic modality 14 1.1.3.2. Epistemic modality 15 1.1.3.3. Deontic modality 17 1.1.3.4. Evidentials 19 1.1.3.5. Dynamic modality 20 1.1.3.6. Volitive modality 22 1.1.3.7. Other types of modality 23 1.2. Korean 24 1.2.1. General language data 24 1.2.2. Classification 25 1.2.3. Phonology 27 1.2.4. Morphology 29 1.2.5. Syntax 31 Chapter 2 Mood 34 2.1. The concept of mood 34 2.2. The verbal system of speech levels 39 2.3. A taxonomy of mood in Korean 42 2.3.1. Neutral mood 2

Abstract not found

The set of English modal verbs is widely recognised to communicate two broad clusters of meanings: epistemic and root modal meanings. A number of researchers have claimed that root meanings are acquired earlier than epistemic ones; this claim has subsequently been employed in the linguistics literature as an argument for the position that English modal verbs are polysemous (Sweetser 1990). In this paper I offer an alternative explanation for the later emergence of epistemic interpretations by liniking them to the development of the child's theory of mind (Wellman 1990). If correct, this hypothesis might have important implications for the shape of the semantics of modal verbs.