In the 1980s, archaeological studies near the village of Valkenburg, South-Holland, unearthed the skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery during the Roman period...Show moreIn the 1980s, archaeological studies near the village of Valkenburg, South-Holland, unearthed the skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery during the Roman period. Part of multiple Roman fortifications along the Limes dating from 40 A.D. onwards, the cemetery was likely used as a burial ground for inhabitants of the Valkenburg fort or nearby vicus, a civilian settlement. The cemetery comprised at least 250 cremated individuals as well as 47 inhumations, which is a striking find that contradicts the common Roman practice of cremation. Due to these inhumated skeletal remains, the site provides an unique opportunity to employ osteoarchaeological analysis to reconstruct the lives of individuals that lived in the Roman Frontier region. This thesis utilizes cross-sectional geometry and bilateral asymmetry analysis to infer activity patterns among individuals at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery, as current research on the differences in bone geometry between different demographic groups within Roman communities in the Lower Rhine area is limited. The study further investigates the factors and potential activity patterns that might influence those variations, such as biological age and sex. To do so, it builds on the initial osteoarchaeological study conducted by Lonnée and Maat (1998), who reported the estimated sex and age-at-death of each individual. Following this, each relevant bone in the upper and lower limbs was measured on various points to generate the indices for each point of measurement, as well as calculate the percentage directional asymmetry (DA%) and absolute asymmetry (AA%). The resulting values were then compared statistically between the biological sexes and age-at-death categories. While statistical significance is limited, the interpretation of data highlights the potential of these analyses in inferring activity patterns. Results from the analysis indicate that males tend to display more robust and symmetric upper and lower limbs than females, which are likely attributable to biological factors or a wider range of activities in males. Age-at-death categories exhibited inconsistencies with patterns described in other study, which is possibly due to natural variation or the limited preservation and availability of the skeletal material. Despite the limited number of individuals that could be examined, this thesis contributes valuable insights into the application of cross-sectional geometry and bilateral asymmetry analysis in osteoarchaeological studies, complementing historical data and broadening our understanding of activities in Roman frontier regions.Show less
The phenomenon of Russian honorific agreement was first mentioned and used as evidence in Agreement Hierarchy by Greville Corbett (1979). Since then it has received little attention in the...Show moreThe phenomenon of Russian honorific agreement was first mentioned and used as evidence in Agreement Hierarchy by Greville Corbett (1979). Since then it has received little attention in the literature, unlike the other, more famous, cases of semantic agreement, e.g. hybrid nouns (Corbett 2015), pancake sentences (Enger 2004). This thesis is dedicated to investigating honorific agreement in Russian on the basis of independently collected data from the Russian National Corpus and a number of individually selected literary works.Show less
This thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in...Show moreThis thesis investigates the morphological status of COVID-related splinters. It examines whether the splinters cov(i)-, -demic, and quaran- are in the process of becoming combining forms, in similar vein to forms like -(a)holic, a splinter which has developed into a combining form. Corpus-based investigation and feature-based analysis have shown that cov(i)- and -demic indeed behave like combining forms in word formation processes, while quaran- does not. However, an analysis of its lexical structure has indicated that it is not impossible for quaran- to become a combining form eventually.Show less
Most researchers agree that frequency plays a role during the processing or accessing of words. Hay (2001) argues that there is a type of frequency called relative frequency which has an important...Show moreMost researchers agree that frequency plays a role during the processing or accessing of words. Hay (2001) argues that there is a type of frequency called relative frequency which has an important effect on the processing of derived forms through a two-route model of morphological processing. She argues that complex forms with a frequency lower than the frequency of their base forms (e.g. uncommon) are more likely to be perceived as decomposable than a complex form with a higher frequency than the frequency of their base words (e.g. uncanny). She reports the results of an experiment which provides evidence for this view. Since it is reasonable to assume that these relative frequency effects also occur in other languages, I replicated her experiment for Dutch. The results of my experiment suggest that relative frequency effects are observed in the processing of Dutch derived forms.Show less
