A comprehensive reference volume describing all ancient and modern scripts of the world. Scripts are illustrated by texts with full explanation and grammatical analyses, and each discussion has a bibliography leading to more technical literature.

The Muslim-majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia are famous for their extraordinary arts and Islamic revival movements. Using ethnographic methods to analyze performance text, social and historical context, and local perspectives, the contributors to this volume address how pious notions and practices intersect with contemporary religio-ethical projects and sociopolitical dynamics. This collection provides an extensive view of dance, music, television series, and film in rural, urban, and mass-mediated contexts and how pious Islamic discourses are encoded and embodied in these public cultural forms.

This collection explicates one of the core ideas underpinning Minimalist theory - explanation via simplification - and its role in shaping some of the latest developments within this framework, specifically the simplest Merge hypothesis and the reduction of syntactic phenomena to third factor considerations. Bringing together recent papers on the topic by Epstein, Kitahara, and Seely, with one by Epstein, Seely and Obata, and one by Kitahara, the book begins with an introduction which situates the papers in a cohesive overview of some of the latest research on Minimalism, as facilitated by current theoretical developments. The volume integrates a historical overview of evolutions in Merge, starting with Chomsky's (pre-Merge) Aspects model up to current theoretical models, including a primer of Chomsky's most recent theory of Merge based on the concept of Workspace. The Minimalist notions of "perfection" and "simplification" are also outlined, providing clearly explicated coverage of key technical concepts within the framework as applied to grammatical phenomena. Taken as a whole, the collection both introduces and advances Minimalist theory for students and scholars in linguistics and related sub-disciplines of psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science, as well as offering new directions for future research for researchers in these fields.

This volume presents a series of papers written by Epstein, Kitahara and Seely, each of which explores fundamental linguistic questions and analytical mechanisms proposed in recent minimalist work, specifically concerning recent analyses by Noam Chomsky. The collection includes eight papers by the collaborators (one with Miki Obata), plus three additional papers, each individually authored by Epstein, Kitahara and Seely, that cover a range of related topics including: the minimalist commitment to explanation via simplification; the Strong Minimalist Thesis; strict adherence to simplest Merge, Merge (X, Y) = {X, Y}, subject to 3rd factor constraints; and state-of-the-art concepts and consequences of Chomsky's most recent proposals. For instance, the volume clarifies and explores: the properties of Merge, feature inheritance and Agree; the nature of phases, cyclicity and countercyclicity; the properties of Transfer; the interpretation of features and their values and the role formal features play in the form and function of syntactic operations; and the specific properties of derivations, partially ordered rule application, and the nature of interface representations. At the cutting edge of scholarship in generative syntax, this volume will be an essential resource for syntax researchers seeking to better understand the minimalist program.

This volume presents a series of papers written by Epstein, Kitahara and Seely, each of which explores fundamental linguistic questions and analytical mechanisms proposed in recent minimalist work, specifically concerning recent analyses by Noam Chomsky. The collection includes eight papers by the collaborators (one with Miki Obata), plus three additional papers, each individually authored by Epstein, Kitahara and Seely, that cover a range of related topics including: the minimalist commitment to explanation via simplification; the Strong Minimalist Thesis; strict adherence to simplest Merge, Merge (X, Y) = {X, Y}, subject to 3rd factor constraints; and state-of-the-art concepts and consequences of Chomsky's most recent proposals. For instance, the volume clarifies and explores: the properties of Merge, feature inheritance and Agree; the nature of phases, cyclicity and countercyclicity; the properties of Transfer; the interpretation of features and their values and the role formal features play in the form and function of syntactic operations; and the specific properties of derivations, partially ordered rule application, and the nature of interface representations. At the cutting edge of scholarship in generative syntax, this volume will be an essential resource for syntax researchers seeking to better understand the minimalist program.

This book discusses the early stages of the development of nanostructures, including synthesis techniques, growth mechanisms, the physics and chemistry of nanostructured materials, various innovative characterization techniques, the need for functionalization and different functionalization methods as well as the various properties of nanostructured materials. It focuses on the applications of nanostructured materials, such as mechanical applications, nanoelectronics and microelectronic devices, nano-optics, nanophotonics and nano-optoelectronics, as well as piezoelectric, agriculture, biomedical and, environmental remediation applications, and anti-microbial and antibacterial properties. Further, it includes a chapter on nanomaterial research developments, highlighting work on the life-cycle analysis of nanostructured materials and toxicity aspects.

This book discusses the early stages of the development of nanostructures, including synthesis techniques, growth mechanisms, the physics and chemistry of nanostructured materials, various innovative characterization techniques, the need for functionalization and different functionalization methods as well as the various properties of nanostructured materials. It focuses on the applications of nanostructured materials, such as mechanical applications, nanoelectronics and microelectronic devices, nano-optics, nanophotonics and nano-optoelectronics, as well as piezoelectric, agriculture, biomedical and, environmental remediation applications, and anti-microbial and antibacterial properties. Further, it includes a chapter on nanomaterial research developments, highlighting work on the life-cycle analysis of nanostructured materials and toxicity aspects.

The Muslim-majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia are known for their extraordinary arts and Islamic revival movements. This collection provides an extensive view of dance, music, television series, and film in rural, urban, and mass-mediated contexts and how pious Islamic discourses are encoded and embodied in these public cultural forms.

This pathbreaking study presents a new perspective on the role of derivation, the series of operations by which sentences are formed. Working within the Minimalist Program and focusing on English, the authors develop an original theory of generative syntax, providing illuminating new analyses of some central syntactic constructions. Two key questions are explored: first, can the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) be eliminated from Minimalist analysis without loss, and perhaps with a gain in empirical coverage; and second, is the construct 'A-Chain' similarly eliminable? The authors argue that neither EPP nor the A-chain is in fact a property of Universal Grammar, but rather their descriptive content can be deduced from independently motivated properties of lexical items, in accordance with overarching principles governing derivation. In investigating these questions, a range of new data is introduced, and existing data re-analyzed, presenting a pioneering challenge to fundamental assumptions in syntactic theory.

Career Behaviour and the European Parliament seeks to answer the question of how a political institution, such as the European Parliament, can impact the career ambitions and behaviours chosen by European politicians. Long considered a 'second order' legislature in its degree of political importance and prestige, the European Parliament is the only directly elected institution within the European Union and is an increasingly important part of the European legislative process. Using a major new source of quantitative data and interviews with more than 50 current and former European legislators, this book argues that as the institution has become increasingly professionalized and powerful, the volatility of its membership has declined. However, the professional ambitions of its members vary greatly by national background, leading to an uneven distribution of legislative seniority and influence within the legislature. The book presents a new theory with political careers acting as institutions in themselves, and also offers complete background information on all elected Members of the European Parliament, from 1979-2014.

An Exploration of Writing is a book about our alphabets, our syllabaries, and all the other kinds of writing that people use and have used for 5000 years. It introduces the general public to a topic that hardly anyone has heard about, so it clarifies basic linguistic terms as they occur. For linguists exploring the growing field of graphonomy-the study of writing systems-in which the author has long been a pioneer, it weaves together the many threads of theory into a tapestry showing a fuller picture of what all our scripts are seen to share. An Exploration of Writing begins with more familiar kinds of writing considered in unfamiliar ways-starting with English viewed syllabically--and leads the reader across the Old World and the New to less familiar kinds of writing, showing how all writings share a fundamental essence, however diverse they appear to be, because all writing represents language. The more familiar (Hebrew, Chinese, Korean) leads on to the less familiar (Udi, Pahlavi, Javanese). Featured are some of the world's most recently elucidated scripts, and some that are long known but long neglected, such as those for Central Asian languages, and some of the most recent interpretations of long-mysterious scripts, such as Sumerian and Mesoamerican. An Exploration of Writing is in the tradition of and in part a response to A Study of Writing (1952/1963), by I. J. Gelb. It encapsulates more than thirty years of the author's work and his dozens of articles on writing systems, ranging from investigating the physical process of writing to bringing to light the achievements of those who had deciphered forgotten scripts to developing a theoretical approach to the origins of writing which leads to insights into the nature of writing itself.

This pathbreaking study presents a new perspective on the role of derivation, the series of operations by which sentences are formed. Working within the Minimalist Program and focusing on English, the authors develop an original theory of generative syntax, providing illuminating new analyses of some central syntactic constructions. Two key questions are explored: first, can the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) be eliminated from Minimalist analysis without loss, and perhaps with a gain in empirical coverage; and second, is the construct 'A-Chain' similarly eliminable? The authors argue that neither EPP nor the A-chain is in fact a property of Universal Grammar, but rather their descriptive content can be deduced from independently motivated properties of lexical items, in accordance with overarching principles governing derivation. In investigating these questions, a range of new data is introduced, and existing data re-analyzed, presenting a pioneering challenge to fundamental assumptions in syntactic theory.

Lucian Rolfe believes himself to be an average seventeen year-old boy until he fishes a strange, golden key out of the local creek. Alluring and beautiful, he opts to keep it for himself. But to his horror he soon realizes that its surfacing coincides with many odd happenings around town. The appearance of a strange, hooded man has locals on edge, popping up unexpectedly and asking curious questions. But the revealing of the key draws much fouler attention to Lucian's village than that of a suspicious traveler's. Vicious, shadowy creatures begin to collect on the outskirts of town, stalking Lucian and hunting his new discovery. For as Lucian will learn, there is far more to this key than meets the eye, and even more to himself.