Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Contact-related constructional change in Dutch argument structure constructions" "Timothy Colleman" "Department of Linguistics" "The project investigates the pathways and theoretical implications of contact-related change in the formal and semantic properties of schematic grammatical constructions and/or in their frequency of use. The empirical focus is on selected argument structure constructions from 19th Century Belgian Dutch (contact language: French) and from present-day Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch (contact language: English)." "The Evolution of Case, Alignment and Argument Structure in Indo-European" "Johanna Barddal" "Department of Linguistics" "The project EVALISA aims to investigate case marking and argument structure from a historical perspective, or more precisely non-nominative case marking of subjects. focusing on its development through the history of the indo-European languages. One of the products emerging from the project is an electronically searchable database of predicates taking non-nomitave subject marking, available to the research community at large" "Mind and Formal Structures: On the Kripke-Ross Argument Against Naturalizing Formal Understanding" "Henning Tegtmeyer, Paul Cortois" "Centre for Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Culture" "The philosophy of mind can be described as a conjunction of three problems: 1) the problem of qualia (our conscious, phenomenal, qualitative feel and experience of the world), 2) the problem of intentionality (the aboutness of certain mental states) and 3) the problem of thought (concepts, judgments, abstraction, logical reasoning, etc.). Traditional arguments against naturalism have for the most part focused on 1) and 2), although primarily on 1). Some philosophers have even swept 3) under the rugof the ""easy problem"" of consciousness, a problem in principle amenableto a functionalist, physicalist account. This last claim has not gone unchallenged and there is reason to believe that it is 3) which makes anyform of naturalism in principle impossible. indeed, there's an old way of arguing against naturalism, based on the Aristotelian tradition, thatdoes not appeal to qualia, subjectivity or intentionality but rather tothe intellectual activities of human beings. The relatively recent revival and contemporary refashioning of this ""older way"" can be called the neo-Aristotelian case against naturalism. Amongst the several arguments proposed against naturalism, there are particularly two stemming from the neo-Aristotelian camp - one proposed by the late James Ross (2008) andthe other by David Oderberg (2007) - which if succesful refute absolutely any kind of naturalist explanation of human thought (and a fortiori of the intentionality of thoughts). The present dissertation looks to investigate, elucidate and defend these arguments to show why the naturalization of thought is impossible." "Argument realisation of experience processes: a synchronic and diachronic account." "Hans Smessaert, Joop van der Horst" "Formal and Computational Linguistics (ComForT), Leuven, Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven" "In the sentence the dog ate my homework the verb ate has two arguments: the dog and my homework. The way these arguments are syntactically realised here as a subject and a direct object is known in syntactic theory as argument realisation. This research proposal is about the argument realisation of verbs that express an experience process, like frighten, amaze or irritate. The meaning of such verbs makes it difficult to fit them into a prototypical transitivity structure with a subject and a direct object. I want to investigate what kind of constructions these verbs are used with, what differences there are between the verbs, and how the argument realisation changes in the course of time. Each of these three issues takes up existing gaps in the research on verb syntax. The basic assumption is that argument realisation (and syntax in general) is semantically and pragmatically motivated: the choice for a particular construction is not a matter of blind coincidence or arbitrariness in the lexicon, but expresses a specific meaning. This basic assumption is elaborated on in a usage-based construction grammar. Through extensive corpus research, in which use will be made of multivariate statistical techniques, the precise impact of factors that are known from previous research to play a role in verb syntax and of new factors will be calculated and explained. As my field of expertise is Dutch syntax, the focus will be on the situation in Dutch, although other languages and insights from language typology will, of course, be taken into account as well." "Alternations between direct and prepositional objects in Dutch. An in-depth, data-driven approach to variation in argument realization." "Freek Van de Velde" "Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven" "ith a large number of quite diverse Dutch verbs, the language user has a choice to express the object argument as a direct object (1) or a prepositional object (2). (1) Dirk zoekt zijn sleutels.(2) Dirk zoekt naar zijn sleutels.‘Dirk is searching his keys.’ (1) De koning regeert zijn volk.(2) De koning regeert over zijn volk‘The king rules his people.’ This project will investigate what makes the language user opt for (1) or the alternative in (2). In doing so, we will consider a wide range of possible factors: e.g. a subtle difference in meaning, a number of linguistic parameters or even language-external factors, such as the nationality of the language user and formality of the situation.  To find these factors, we will look for patterns in huge digital collections of natural Dutch language material. This will involve the use of statistical models such as logistic regression, as well as distributional techniques, which infer an expression’s meaning from its context.Although this project’s main aim is to advance (usage-based) theoretical models of how language functions, its findings will also serve a direct use. Until now, second language learners of Dutch can only be told that the choice between (1) and (2) is a matter of ‘feeling for the language’. This project however, will quantitatively show what determines this linguistic feeling." "A corpus-based study of the prosody and information structure of English it-clefts and French c'est-clefts." "Gerard O'Grady, Kristin Davidse" "Functional and Cognitive Linguistics: Grammar and Typology (FunC), Leuven" "In English and French, clefts are a productive resource serving information structural purposes, which makes them a particularly useful device to fulfil specific communicative and rhetorical goals. This study investigates the use of cleft constructions in the two languages, first in their own right and then contrastively. Using data from comparable corpora of spontaneous dialogues, I show that clefts display a wider variation in their information structural behaviour than previously assumed. At the theoretical-methodological level, I develop a comprehensive framework for the study of information structural phenomena by providing i) an analytical model for the analysis of discourse-givenness/newness and ii) a fine grained methodology for the analysis of prosodically coded focus, which combines instrumental and auditory information. I give theoretical arguments for why information structural patterns have to be fundamentally distinguished from the syntactically coded specification relation between value and variable they are mapped onto. This produces an approach capable of studying the interplay between the different layers of information structure, which are distinct, yet interrelated, and the interaction between prosody and the grammatical structure of the cleft, which is not solely dedicated to (narrow) focus marking as has been argued.At the theoretical-descriptive level, my qualitative and quantitative data-analyses establish that the two main dimensions of information structure, i.e. discourse-familiarity and prosodically coded focus, are operationalised differently in English and French clefts. In terms of the broad distinction discourse-given versus discourse-new, there are no major differences, although French clefts feature more anaphoric pronouns as value. However, focus assignment patterns contrast strongly, with it-clefts favouring narrow focus and c’est clefts broad focus. I also show that reduced clefts, which have received very little attention in the literature so far, are more than an informationally motivated variant with their own potential for achieving specific rhetorical effects.The account presented in this thesis thus resets base-line thinking about clefts as specificational constructions enabling multiplicity and versatility of information structural realisations, whose overall profiles specialise differently in individual languages." "Culture, social structure, and the self: Explorations into varieties of cultural fit in self-construal, changes therein, and the predictors and outcomes thereof" "Jozefien De Leersnyder" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "People's self-construals—how individuals define themselves and interact with others—demonstrate systematic cultural differences (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Singelis, 1994; Vignoles et al., 2016). Such differences stem not only from ethnic-cultural factors but are also influenced by social structures (e.g., social stratification, labour relations, urbanisation, gender roles, etc.), resulting in distinct self patterns that prevail among different groups (Cohen, 2001; Williams, 1959). When individuals transition into new sociocultural environments, however, initial mismatches might emerge between their accustomed ways of being and relating and those prevalent among the members of the culture they moved into. Over time, by virtue of cultural exposure and engagement, individuals' self-construals may undergo changes, a phenomenon known as acculturation. In my thesis, I explore the relationship between culture, social structure, and self-construals from multiple angles, while also casting doubt on certain theoretical presuppositions that guide psychological frameworks that reflect upon the self.As such, I aim to contribute to the evolving field of self-construal by moving beyond arguments that entail the immutability or the immateriality of the self, or certain dualistic interpretations, in order to embrace a more holistic understanding of how selves are shaped by and shape social contexts and the relationships and interactions situated therein. Viewing the self as a dynamic entity influenced by social phenomena within relational contexts, I come up with empirical evidence on the acculturation of self-construals which is in line with such dynamic and contextual perspectives on the self.My first goal within this thesis is to (Aim 1) explore cultural/structural group differences in self-construals. To this end, I first investigate whether self-construals form coherent patterns within pre-defined cultural categorisations (i.e., ethnicity, SES, and gender groups) and compare degrees of cultural consensus on self-construal patterns among different social and cultural groups (Aim 1.1). To do so, I utilise a long-standing technique from cultural anthropology (i.e., Cultural Consensus Analysis, hereafter CCA; Romney et al., 1986) and calculate the degrees of consensus on self-construals among not only (1.1a) ethnic cultural groups but also within (1.1b) SES and gender groups, and their binary intersections with ethnicity. I do so in order to see whether one can speak of distinct and shared ‘cultures of selfhood’ that might presumably prevail among these different ‘culture’ groups. As an alternative way to show the extent and variety in how much people adhere to these patterns, I utilise the cultural fit approach, a relatively novel method from cultural psychology (Aim 1.2) (Chentsova-Dutton et al., 2018; De Leersnyder et al., 2014). As such, I aim to explore (1.2a) ethnocultural and (1.2b) social-structural (i.e., SES and gender) differences in self-construal patterns, as well as (1.2c/2a) generational differences within ethnic minorities (cf. Aim 2 below). By doing so, I look into meaningful differences that might imply that different ethnic, SES, and gender groups, each have their own ways of being and relating.The second main goal (Aim 2) is to provide the first evidence for the acculturation of self-construals. Here, I explore whether self-construals of minority individuals undergo change consequent to sustained social contact and cultural engagement with the majority culture in a particular sociocultural context, and thus if there is evidence for the acculturation of the self. This I do by (1.2c/2a) comparing the average levels of fit among generations of migrant groups (i.e., on the group level) and by (2b) exploring the association between minorities’ fit of self-construals and several indices of their exposure to and engagement with the majority culture (i.e., individual level). I further aim (2c) to explore minorities’ acculturation attitudes as a potential predictor that could afford such acculturation if it indeed exists. To this end, I look into minorities’ explicit attitudes concerning having social contact with the host majority and their attitudes towards host-cultural values and traditions.The final aim I try to fulfil within this PhD thesis is (Aim 3) to explore the repercussions of (mis)fit in self-construals in academic settings by analysing its associations with certain academic outcomes. Here I first explore, in a secondary school context, the associations between academic achievement and the levels of cultural fit with (3a) SES groups’ average self-construal patterns and (3b) ethnic groups’ self-construal patterns. To shed further light on the possible mechanisms that underlie potential associations between fit with SES groups’ average self-construal patterns and academic achievement, I then look into (3c) the associations between higher education students’ fit with SES groups’ average self-construal patterns and academic self-efficacy beliefs, academic motivation and how the latter two mediate the relationship between fit of self-construals with high-SES groups’ average patterns and academic achievement.In order to fulfil these research aims, I make use of four studies employing a variety of samples, and different self-report measures. The nature of our diverse data sources and measures, as well as the comparative scope of cross-cultural and culturally diverse samples, enabled me to test our hypotheses within different contexts, using different tools. Consequently, I compiled the findings of my analyses with these four datasets into four empirical chapters that make up the main body of this thesis. All throughout, I try to synthetically conjoin perspectives and insights on the self from both (cultural) psychology and philosophy to further scaffold our theoretical considerations and to outline novel avenues for research.The findings I present in the second chapter pointed to varying degrees of agreement on self-construal patterns among different ethnic, SES, and gender groups. Moreover, I found that increasing SES and group intersectionality were associated with elevated levels of agreement, hinting at tighter group cultures of self-construal. Moreover, in Chapters 2 and 3, I present our findings on significant differences in the cultural fit of self-construals across ethnic-cultural groups, where every group fit the highest with their own culture’s average patterns. In Chapter 3, our findings also highlighted generational differences in the fit of self-construal that might hint at acculturation. Indeed, our findings demonstrated that second-or-later-generation minorities had higher levels of fit with the host majority cultural patterns than first-generation minorities.Building on these findings, Chapter 4 explored the relationship between cultural fit and academic achievement, revealing that aligning with the self-construal patterns of high-SES and majority groups positively predicted higher levels of achievement for students in secondary education. As such, this chapter lent support for the cultural mismatch theory, suggesting that educational institutions might value and reward, and thus favour, the cultural norms of advantaged groups, ultimately creating disparities in academic outcomes.The fifth chapter extended this investigation into the higher educational context and examined the mechanisms through which the cultural mismatches might play out. Here I found that the levels of fit with the average self-construal patterns of the high-SES group were associated with more positive academic self-efficacy beliefs and higher levels of academic motivation. Moreover, despite the lack of a direct effect, I found that the association between fit with the high-SES pattern and academic achievement was mediated by academic self-efficacy beliefs.In summary, these chapters collectively emphasise the dynamic and context-dependent nature of self-construals, their interactions with cultural and structural factors, and their implications for academic outcomes. They call for a nuanced understanding of self-construal and point to the relevance and importance of considering cultural fit in self-construals when trying to address educational disparities." "Agentive Modality and the Structure of Modal Knowledge" "Jan Heylen" "Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science" "The topic of my PhD research is the epistemology of modality, that is, the study of knowledge (and more broadly, justified belief) about what is possible, necessary, impossible and contingent. Interest in the field comes from its relevance for the methodology of philosophy itself, where modal claims are often used as premises in arguments or as presuppositions. For example, this happens in the development of thought experiments. Accordingly, the focus has been on knowledge of non-actual metaphysical (non-ordinary, substantive) possibility. A recent approach to this question, explored by Williamson (2007) and Vetter (2016), tries to give an account of knowledge of metaphysical modality in terms of generalizations from ordinary 'entry-points'. Williamson stresses the role of imagination in the assessment of ordinary counterfactuals, and explains knowledge of metaphysical modality as a limiting case of the former. Vetter replaces knowledge of counterfactuals with knowledge of capacities and abilities, and explains knowledge of metaphysical modality in terms of a process of abstraction from concrete cases. In this research, I examine the general viability of this strategy, and independently explore the epistemological, logical, and metaphysical issues concerning knowledge of counterfactuals, abilities, and other related classes of judgment" "The Latin verb phrase: delimitation, internal structure and diachronic evolution" "Liliane Haegeman" "Department of Linguistics" "The project is concerned with the syntax of the Latin Verb Phrase and Tense Phrase, and in with particular the distribution of the verb, its arguments and functional elements like adverbs and negation. The research is based on a corpus of over 3.500.000 words, ranging from 350 BC to 550 AD. The theoretical background is that of generative syntax." "Sustainable anthelmintic use in the Belgian cattle" "Edwin Claerebout" "Department of Translational Physiology, Infectiology and Public Health" "Gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections are a common constraint isture-based dairy herds and cause a decrease in animal health, productivity and farm profitability. Current control practices to prevent production losses of GIN infections in livestock depend largely on the use of anthelmintic drugs. However, due to the intensive use of these drugs, the industry is increasingly confronted with anthelmintic drug-resistant nematode populations. This emphasises the need for sustainable control approaches that minimise the selection pressure for anthelmintic resistance (AR). The uptake of diagnostic methods for sustainable worm control could enable more informed treatments and reduce excessive anthelmintic use. However, farmers have been slow in adopting guidelines for sustainable control. Accordingly, in order to successfully implement such control strategies and change the behaviour of farmers, their current perceptions and behaviours need to be comprehended and translated into effective communication strategies. Chapter 1 reviewed the available literature on GIN control in cattle and concomitant threats for the dairy industry. More specifically, it focused on identifying the factors responsible for the limited uptake of current advises and possible future adoption of sustainable methods. This review demonstrates a substantial gap in literature for scientific evidence concerning farmersU+2019 behaviour (intention) in GIN control. Many reports are based on opinions and personal experiences, or are simply based on U+2018yes-ornoU+2019 questions with immediate relation to farmersU+2019 current or future GIN control, which results in limited insights in farmersU+2019 behaviour and unsubstantiated hypotheses. This stresses the need for more structured and scientific behavioural research, adapted from social veterinary epidemiology, a fairly young discipline with contributions from different fields, such as behavioural psychology and economy. As a response to this emerging need, in Chapter 2 a framework was constructed to identify the socio-psychological factors that influence dairy farmersU+2019 adoption intentions of diagnostic methods before implementing anthelmintic treatments. The framework was based on two grounded models from behavioural and health psychology: the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM), now commonly used in veterinary social sciences. Data to validate and measure the model were collected through a cross-sectional survey of FlandersU+2019 dairy farmers population (N = 574). In the tested model, adoption intentions (i.e. the proximal determinants of adoption, which captures the motivation to perform this behaviour) were predicted based on attitudes towards anthelminthic drugs, attitudes towards diagnostic methods (i.e. an individualU+2019s positive or negative evaluation of this particular behaviour based on the expected outcomes), subjective norms (i.e. the influence of significant others), behavioural control (i.e. perceived ability to perform this adoption) and perceived risk (i.e. the perceived susceptibility and severity of AR in particular). The factors U+2018attitude towards diagnostic methodsU+2019 and U+2018subjective normsU+2019 had the strongest, positive influence on adoption intention of diagnostic methods. U+2018Perceived behavioural controlU+2019 had a weak, positive effect on intention. Further, U+2018attitude towards the use of anthelmintic drugsU+2019 had a negative effect on adoption intentions, which implicates an effect of current behaviour on future adoption. Moreover, the threat of AR is perceived fairly low, and had no effect on the adoption intentions of diagnostics. This chapter gives a broad, general view of the drivers of sustainable GIN control using diagnostics on dairy farms. However, to be able to provide specific advice, further indepth analyses are necessary to determine farmersU+2019 beliefs and motivations underlying these socio-psychological factors. Moreover, a relatively good intention was measured for the adoption of diagnostics, but low actual usage has been reported, suggesting a gap between intention and behaviour. Therefore, Chapter 3 aimed to dig deeper into the established framework for the beliefs underlying this model, and to identify additional factors impelling this specific behaviour. Data were collected through 22 semistructured interviews with dairy farmers. Results show that the adoption process of diagnostic methods for GIN occurs through three different phases: adoption intention, actual adoption and maintenance. Low infection awareness and low priority (U+2018top of mindU+2019) of the disease are important barriers for farmersU+2019 positive intentions towards sustainable GIN control. Secondly, different types of motivations influence different sorts of behaviour. Sustainable behaviour such as use of diagnostics will be influenced by moral motives, while management behaviour such as anthelmintic treatment is raised by more economic motives. Thirdly, farmersU+2019 behaviour is guided by two important social norms: the opinion of their veterinarian and their fellow farmers. However, farmers hold an incongruent relationship with both norms throughout the different stages of behaviour: they do not value other farmersU+2019 opinions as a positive reference (intention phase), but they do follow and mimic their behaviour as a group (action phase). The veterinarian is seen as the most important positive reference, but also the responsible actor for GIN control. As such, the farmers do not hold themselves responsible for implementing sustainable control strategies. Finally, not only performing, but also maintaining behaviour is important to fully address the adoption of sustainable worm control. To perform and maintain the adoption on farm, planning could be an important contribution, which could help to surmount other suggested barriers for actual adoption, i.e. habits and responsibility. The insights of Chapter 2 and 3 were used to create and test public service announcements (PSA), which were set up to create awareness of AR and promote sustainable control. In Chapter 4, the aim was to create awareness of anthelmintic resistance and to decrease farmersU+2019 positive attitudes of preventive treatments as a first step towards behaviour change. More specifically, the PSA focused on discouraging this behaviour by using message sidedness in a humorous advertisement. Two-sided argumentation (i.e. both pro and contra argument) and humour as communication strategies are known to generate less negative responses and lead towards improved message acceptance. The effects of the message on sustainable behaviour intentions were measured through a cognitive and affective route of persuasion. The cognitive route is prompted by rational thoughts, while emotions are the drivers of the affective route. Using a 2 (message sidedness: one-sided vs. two-sided) x 2 (humour: humorous vs. non-humorous message framing) between-subjects design (N = 167) the persuasiveness of the advertisement was tested. Results show that a two-sided message without humour evoked more negative cognitive responses (i.e. negative thoughts) than a one-sided message, leading to fewer changes in behavioural intentions. However, a two-sided message resulted in increased sustainable intentions compared to a onesided message when humour was used as a frame in the advertisement. Moreover, the more simplistic PSA with only one argument and no humour presented similar results. Therefore, simple messages towards farmers can be equally effective as more complex strategies (i.e. both two-sided argumentation and humour). Chapter 5 was set up as a U+2018call to actionU+2019 for sustainable GIN control, the second step towards behaviour change. The chapter investigates how to change farmersU+2019 adoption intentions by using social influence, more specifically, injunctive norms. It focuses on two endorser types (expert vs. peer), considered as distinguished subjective norms, to change farmersU+2019 behavioural intentions. Furthermore, the endorsersU+2019 ability to either discourage (proscriptive message content), or encourage (prescriptive message content) behaviour were established. The effects of endorsers on behavioural intention were measured through three mediators: expertise, trustworthiness and similarity. Using a 2 (endorser type: expert vs. peer) x 2 (content type: proscriptive vs. prescriptive message) between-subjects design (N = 143) the persuasiveness of the advertisement was tested. Results show that an expert endorser (veterinarian) had a direct increased effect on behavioural intention, compared to a peer endorser (farmer). The veterinarian is the most important advisor and the key figure for disease control on farm, while the farmer is perceived as a negative reference, not valued for its opinion. Moreover, the effect was mediated through similarity, which emphasises the power of the in-group for social influence. Finally, the different content types had no effect on behavioural intention, not even when presented by different endorsers. Finally, Chapter 6 assembles the main findings of the socio-epidemiological research performed within this PhD-project, and how these were translated into effective communication strategies. By presenting how the results from qualitative and quantitative studies can be translated into advice and subsequently verified with communication experiments, this chapter contributes to the current knowledge within the field of veterinary parasitology on changing dairy farmersU+2019 behaviours. Firstly, a brief discussion is given on the two main research questions and how these were addressed throughout the PhD project by each separate study. RQ1: What drives the farmer towards the adoption of sustainable GIN control? The first question was addressed with the results from the behavioural research presented in Chapter 2 and 3. This was followed by RQ2: U+2018How can we use this newly gained knowledge to encourage farmers to change their current GIN control?U+2019 This second question was tackled with communication experiments presented in Chapter 4 and 5. Furthermore, a general elaboration of the results throughout the whole project is discussed, following the three phases of adoption: intention, action and maintenance. Additionally, the limitations of the project are addressed, along with suggestions for future research on the matter. These limitations are subdivided in three categories, characteristic for this thesis: the object of research, the behavioural methods and theories, and the translation of the results into communication strategies. Lastly, the chapter presents practical and evidence-based guidelines for developing a communication campaign, aimed at raising farmersU+2019 awareness on the importance of a sustainable anthelmintic use."