I propose a theory of the passive that combines aspects of the principles and parameters analysis (no specific rules, no downward movement) and Chomsky’s (1957) Syntactic Structures analysis (the arguments in the passive are generated in the same positions as they are in the active).

A large number of molecular mechanisms exist to ensure the continued function of perturbed cells. Here we explore a range of mechanisms of molecular robustness. A theory of robustness is proposed in which mechanisms are classified into those that purge damage, and those that buffer damage. The strategy upon which a system settles, is a function of the cost of purgation, and thereby a function o...

? This article aims to analyse the importance of the Wikipedia articles in different languages (English, French, Russian, Polish) and the impact of the importance on the quality of articles. Based on the analysis of literature and our own experience we collected measures related to articles, specifying various aspects of quality that will be used to build the models of articles importance. For ...

Luc Demortier The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, U.S.A. Abstract The standard Bayesian treatment of systematic uncertainties is to integrate out the corresponding nuisance parameters from the joint posterior density for all parameters. We apply this formalism to measurements in which the data cannot distinguish between nuisance parameters and parameters of interest, and show that i...

In the presence of nuisance parameters, we derive an explicit higher order asymptotic formula to compare the expected lengths of conndence intervals given by likelihood ratio statistics arising from the usual proole likelihood and various adjustments thereof. Highest posterior density regions, with approximate frequentist validity, are also included in the study.

For hypotheses of the type H0 : θ = θ0 vs H1 : θ 6= θ0 we demonstrate the equivalence of a Bayesian hypothesis test using a Bayes factor and the corresponding classical test, for a large class of models, which are detailed in the paper. In particular, we show that the role of the prior and critical region for the Bayes factor test is only to specify the type I error. This is their only role sin...

The basic idea in PRINCIPLES AND PARAMETERS THEORY is to distinguish the invariants of human language (the principles) from the major points of crosslinguistic variation (the parameters). Both principles and parameters are taken to reflect innately determined, biological characteristics of the human brain (see UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR). In the course of normal child development, however, the two diver...

Remnant low-energy effects of Planck-scale Lorentz breaking in candidate fundamental theories typically include modified one-particle dispersion relations. Theoretical constraints on such modifications are discussed leading to the exclusion of a variety of previously considered Lorentz-violating parameters. In particular, the fundamental principle of coordinate independence, the role of an effe...

In this paper, non-standard tight closure is proposed as an alternative for classical tight closure on finitely generated algebras over C. It has the advantage that it admits a functional definition, similar to the characteristic p definition of tight closure, where instead of the characteristic p Frobenius, its ultraproduct, the non-standard Frobenius, is used. This new closure operation cl(·)...

This paper presents the results of a pitch accent categorisation simulation which attempts to classify L*H and H*L accents using a psychologically motivated exemplar-theoretic model of categorisation. Pitch accents are represented in terms of six linguistically meaningful parameters describing their shape. No additional information is employed in the categorisation process. The results indicate...