Showing papers on "Plural published in 1996"

Family in the Caribbean: Themes and Perspectives

Abstract: A review of the literature on the family, household and conjugal unions in the Caribbean. It is constructed around themes prominent in family studies: definitions of the family, plural and Creole society, social structure, gender roles and relationships, methodology, history, and social change.

The Homophone Effect in Written French: The Case of Verb-Noun Inflection Errors.

Abstract: Sometimes people miswrite a word that sounds like the target word (e.g. “there” instead of “their”). This homophone effect is interesting in that it is one of the rare cases in which grammatical classes can be violated. In five experiments, we provided evidence that the homophone effect can be experimentally induced in French adults. This effect manifested itself through the occurrence of noun-verb inflection errors. These inflection errors were elicited by presenting subjects with “pronoun1 pronoun2 verb” sentences and asking them to recall these sentences by writing them down. In these sentences, when the verb had a noun homophone whose frequency was higher than that of the verb, the erroneous inflection was most often -s, the plural mark of nouns. The first three experiments showed that this homophone effect was enhanced when working memory was overloaded. The last two experiments showed that the homophone effect increased when the meaning of the noun was primed by a relevant semantic context. The pres...

Program control system programmable to selectively execute a plurality of programs

Abstract: The present invention provides a program control system including plural programs, plural execution means each of which executes the corresponding program of the plural programs, a memory for storing the plural programs, plural program counters each of which generates an address for reading the corresponding one of the programs from the memory, and a selector for selecting an output of one of the program counters and providing the output to the memory. Each of the programs stored in the memory and executed by the corresponding one of the execution means is indicated by the address generated by the corresponding one of the program counters selected by the selector, and the memory sequentially stores instructions in each of the programs.

Pragmatic Strengthening in Plural Predications and Donkey Sentences

Abstract: (2.a) is called the symmetric interpretation, and (2.b) the (subject-) asymmetric interpretation by Kadmon (1987). In (2.b), the donkey variable y is called dependent. With asymmetric interpretations the question arises how the dependent variable is interpreted within the second argument, the nuclear scope. This issue is taken up in Rooth (1987). He distinguishes two cases, a “weak” or existential interpretation as in (3.a), and a “strong” or universal interpretation as in (3.b).

Ancestral Language Acquisition Implications for Aspects of Ethnic Identity among Armenian American Children and Adolescents

Abstract: This article investigates associations between the acquisition of an ancestral language and ethnic affinity. Narratives about Armenian and non-Armenian cultural activities, and attitudes toward language usage and culture were elicited from 44 boys and girls aged 8-15 years. Some of the children spokeArmenian in addition to English, but all were active in an Armenian American community. American-born bilingual children were found to use relatively more first person plural pronouns than singular pronouns in stories aboutArmenian cultural activities compared with English-only speaking children of Armenian descent and foreign-born bilingual children, suggesting thatAmerican-born bilingual children may have closer affinity with theArmenianAmerican community than either monolingual or foreign-born bilingual children. Differences between the groups in attitude toward bicultural background also were found. Monolinguals made relatively fewer positive evaluations of their bicultural experiences than either the Amer...

Associative forms in a typology of number systems: evidence from Yup'ik

Abstract: A general typology of number systems has to confront the problem of variation both in the number values in different languages and in the inventories of nominals involved. We start from the Smith-Stark Hierarchy and extend this approach to additional numbers (such as dual and paucal). Associative plurals appear to undermine this typology, if we treat them as a third number. Either the associative plural or the ordinary plural proves to be exceptional. The morphology of associative marking in Central Pomo and in Central Alaskan Yup'ik suggests that this is the wrong approach. In Central Pomo the associative contains an original plural segment. More significantly, Central Alaskan Yup'ik provides the ideal combination of three numbers and complex morphology to demonstrate that associatives should not be treated as additional numbers. Associativity and number are realized separately, which shows that associatives are a separate category interacting with number. This allows us to maintain the typology proposed.

Beyond “progressivism”: a new “global paradigm” in public management?

Abstract: This paper examines Osborne and Gaebler's well-known claim that a new “global paradigm” is emerging in public administration in the nineties. There has been a trend away from the doctrines of “progressive public administration” in several countries, though it is less certain that the move is truly universal. Yet this paper argues that establishing the partial retreat of progressivism does not necessarily demonstrate that any single new style of public administration will “inevitably” be adopted worldwide to replace progressivism, or even that progressivism will everywhere disappear. Accordingly, public administration in the nineties may be facing a plural future, as services and reform emphases shift among these styles, rather than any single “new paradigm”.

Where Defaults Don't Help: the Case of the German Plural System

Abstract: The German plural system has become a focal point for conflicting theories of language, both linguistic and cognitive. We present simulation results with three simple classifiers - an ordinary nearest neighbour algorithm, Nosofsky's `Generalized Context Model' (GCM) and a standard, three-layer backprop network - predicting the plural class from a phonological representation of the singular in German. Though these are absolutely `minimal' models, in terms of architecture and input information, they nevertheless do remarkably well. The nearest neighbour predicts the correct plural class with an accuracy of 72% for a set of 24,640 nouns from the CELEX database. With a subset of 8,598 (non-compound) nouns, the nearest neighbour, the GCM and the network score 71.0%, 75.0% and 83.5%, respectively, on novel items. Furthermore, they outperform a hybrid, `pattern-associator + default rule', model, as proposed by Marcus et al. (1995), on this data set.

Image search apparatus

Abstract: An image search apparatus includes a memory for storing plural sets of images, each set of the plural sets of images comprising one page image or plural page images, a display unit for displaying an image, and a control unit for controlling the display of the plural sets of images stored in the memory in reduced size on the display unit at a time, the control unit being capable of displaying desired pages of the said plural sets of images in reduced size.

Time division drive recording apparatus and method

Abstract: A recording apparatus records an image by driving plural recording elements in blocks, into which the plural recording elements are divided. The plural blocks are divided into plural groups, each group having more than one block. A driving circuit drives each of the blocks independently. The driving circuit effects recording with high resolution or low resolution by respectively driving plural groups at a different timing in a first mode and driving the plural groups at a same timing in a second mode.

Georgian: A Learner's Grammar

Abstract: Introduction. Lesson 1. Citation form of nouns and adjectives Locative expressions Formation of adverbs Asking questions Consonant final words Pronouns, possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns Formality The Present tense of 'to be' The verbs of motion and similar formations Lesson 2. The plural of nouns The Dative case The Genitive case Declensions and Demonstratives Adjective agreement with Datives and Genitives Preverbs Numbers Telling the time Days of the week Months of the year The Present tense of the verbs 'to stand up', 'to lie down', 'to sit down' Names denoting common relationships and possessives Lesson 3. Asking about and stating one's age The comparative and superlative grades of adjectives and adverbs The Instrumental case Adjective agreement with the Instrumental Postpositions Subject-agreement markers within the verb for intransitive subjects Lesson 4. The division of the tense-system Subject and direct object case marking and verbal agreement for Series I transitives Word-order Transitive verbs in the present indicative Neutral Version Verb-agreement with 3rd person plural subjects Syncope of -o- in nouns The Adverbial case of nouns Adjective agreement with nouns in the Adverbial case The postposition -mde up to Lesson 5. Subjective Version Indirect Objects Locative Version Indefinite Pronouns and Adverbs Articles Lesson 6. The future indicative of transitive verbs Object agreement affixes Reflexives Emphatics Pronouns Lesson 7. Objective version Expressions with too, also, as well Emphatic interrogative particle Relative Clauses The potential negative The Vocative case Adjective agreement with the Vocative Lesson 8. The syntax of Series II transitive verbs The Ergative case Declension types and agreement patterns The aorist indicative forms of transitive verbs Lesson 9. The formation of colloquial relative clauses Temporal clauses meaning 'when' Temporal clauses meaning 'while' Manner clauses meaning 'as, like' Temporal clauses meaning 'as soon as' Temporal clauses meaning 'after' Noun-clauses Causal clauses 'because, as, since' Simple Conditional (if) clauses The verb 'to know' in the Present Indicative Lesson 10. The formation of the Present and Future Indicatives of intransitive verbs Meaning and syntax of intransitive verbs The marking of intransitive verbs with indirect objects Some anomalies among the intransitives The irregular Future indicatives Lesson 11. The formation of the Aorist Indicative for intransitive verbs The syntax required by intransitive verbs in Series II The Medial Verbs in the present, future and aorist indicatives The syntax of Medial verbs Version as a change of tense marker Lesson 12. The formation of the Aorist Subjunctive for Transitive Intransitives and Medials Some uses of the Aorist Subjunctive How to issue an instruction in the Imperative How to construct expressions of Prohibition Lesson 13. Stative Verbs The Indirect Verbs How to say 'X wants to (VERB)' and 'X can (VERB)' How to express the notion 'convey' How to say 'know' in the future indicative Forms of the more important stative verbs Lesson 14. Formation of the imperfect indicative, present subjunctive, conditional and future subjunctive Expressions of the type 'if X were to (be) verb(ing), Y would be (verb)' Constructing imperatives from verbs without an aorist indicative Constructing expressions of the type 'X out to be verbing' Expressions of purpose relating to the future Some other verbs that take the aorist subjunctive

Toward a Calculus of Meaning: Studies in markedness, distinctive features and deixis

Abstract: 1. Contributors 2. Introduction 3. I: Theoretical and Methodological Overview 4. 1. Phoneme and Morpheme and the sign Nature of Language (by Schooneveld, Cornelis H. van) 5. 2. Phonological Markedness and a Plea for useful Linguistics (by Liberman, Anatoly) 6. 3. Remarks on the Semantic features of Cases and Prepositions as Related to Syntax (by Sgall, Petr) 7. 4. The Human Factor and the Insufficiency of Invariant Meanings (by Kirsner, Robert S.) 8. II: Studies in Russian and Slavic Languages 9. 1. Gender and Declension Shifts in Contemporary Standard Russian: Markedness as a Semiotic Principle (by Andrews, Edna) 10. 2. Markedness and the Typology of Russian Verb Stems (by Feinberg, Lawrence E.) 11. 3. The Semantic Markings of Russian Verbal Suffixes (by Sperling, Annie Joly) 12. 4. Regular and Deviant Patterns of Russian Nominal Stress and Their relationship to Markedness (by Feldstein, Ronald F.) 13. 5. Deixis in Time and Space: The Fate of the Russian Demonstrativessej (by Dolgova, Irina) 14. 6. A Panchronic Approach to Morphological Competition in the East Slavic Substantive (Plural Paradigms) (by Pugh, Stefan M.) 15. III: Applications to Other Languages, Language Families, and Aphasia 16. 1. "Things" in a Noun Class Language: Semantic Functions of Grammatical Agreement in Swahili (by Contini-Morava, Ellen) 17. 2. Markers of Association and Distance in German Reported Speech (by Fennell, Barbara A.) 18. 3. The Five Deictics of Lak (by Friedman, Victor A.) 19. 4. Typologies of Person Categories in Slavic and Semitic (by Fradkin, Robert) 20. 5. Invariance, Markedness and Distinctive Feature Theory: The Modern Hebrew Verb (by Tobin, Yishai) 21. 6. The Application of Distinctive Semantic Features to the Production abd Comprehension of Locative Prepositions in Different Forms of Aphasia (by Leikin, Mark) 22. Name Index 23. Subject Index

The unity of morphology: on the interwovenness of the derivational and inflectional dimension of the word

Abstract: A common trait of many approaches to morphology is that a distinction is made between ‘derivation’ on the one hand and ‘inflection’ on the other, the former dealing with words the latter with word forms. As is well-known, however, it is extremely hard to characterize this distinction in objective terms. In Bybee (1985: 81) the stand is taken that it may well be that the criterion of ‘obligatoriness’ is the only criterion which provides a discrete division between derivational and inflectional processes. According to this view, inflectional morphemes are those whose appearance in a particular syntactic position is compulsory. It seems to me, however, that even this criterion is not as clear as Bybee suggests. The fact is, that particularly many categories of so-called inherent inflection are not compulsory in the above sense. In many languages, categories such as nominal plurals or comparatives and superlatives of adjectives are not dictated by sentence structure as, for instance, person or number marking on verbs is. Nonetheless, these categories have traditionally always been considered instances of inflection. Why is that so? The answer to this question, it seems to me, is that these categories, somehow or other, ‘participate’ in the syntactic structure that they form part of, something which prototypical derivational categories never do.1 In many languages the category of nominal plurals, for instance, dictates plural marking on the verb. Put differently, in a language like Dutch nominal plurals take part in the concord system, a fact which renders these forms a status which is fundamentally different from purely derivational categories

Where Defaults Don't Help: the Case of the German Plural System

Abstract: The German plural system has become a focal point for conflicting theories of language, both linguistic and cognitive. We present simulation results with three simple classifiers - an ordinary nearest neighbour algorithm, Nosofsky's `Generalized Context Model' (GCM) and a standard, three-layer backprop network - predicting the plural class from a phonological representation of the singular in German. Though these are absolutely `minimal' models, in terms of architecture and input information, they nevertheless do remarkably well. The nearest neighbour predicts the correct plural class with an accuracy of 72% for a set of 24,640 nouns from the CELEX database. With a subset of 8,598 (non-compound) nouns, the nearest neighbour, the GCM and the network score 71.0%, 75.0% and 83.5%, respectively, on novel items. Furthermore, they outperform a hybrid, `pattern-associator + default rule', model, as proposed by Marcus et al. (1995), on this data set.

Anaphor or Pronominal

Abstract: This paper examines the Korean caki and the Japanese zibun to deter­ mine whether they are anaphors or pronominals, applying the' following three tests: (i) split antecedence; (ii) strict identity reading under VP el­ lipsis; (iii) disjoint reference effect. Interpretation of the plural markers, Korean tul and Japanese tati indicates that the split antecedence of caki­ tul and zibun-tati cannot be attributed to pronominal properties of caki and zibun, but to the property of the plural morphologies tul and tati, respectively. Furthermore, the impossibility of a strict identity reading under VP ellipsis supports the analysis that they are not referential pro­ nouns_ It is also shown that their non-adherence to anti-locality condition excludes the possibility that they are bound pronouns or referential pro­ nouns, supporting the claim that they are anaphors.

Les erreurs d'accord sujet-verbe en production écrite

Abstract: To account for subject-verb agreement errors which can be observed in sentences written by literate adults (e.g., The daughter of the neighbors come), the present study examined a two-step processing model. The first step consists of automatic activation of a singular or plural verb form depending on whether the closest preverbal noun is singular or plural; as the outcome of this first step, the verb agrees with the nearest noun, giving rise to what has been called > errors. A second step prevents the occurrence of erroneous subject-verb agreements that would be unavoidable if the writer had no control on the outcome of the first step. This second step consists of an editing-check process allowing the writer to carry out a pre-graphical editing of the agreement. Two experiments are reported in which subjects were asked to perform simultaneously two tasks: a) to transcribe a sentence that was orally presented and, b) to mentally add numbers that they heard during the transcription. The results of these experiments supported two predictions of the processing model of number agreement in writing: a) the editing-check step consumed cognitive resources; the agreement errors were greatly increased by the temporary cognitive overload (as is the case in a double task paradigm) preventing the subjects from carrying out the control processes; b) the implementation of the editing-check stage depended on the prior detection of potential errors, which occurs, for example, when the preverbal item is not a semantically plausible subject of the verb.

Le Temps Dans Les Oeuvres De Jorge Luis Borges, Edouard Glissant Et Saint-John Perse.

Abstract: This dissertation compares conceptions of time as they appear in the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Edouard Glissant and Saint-John Perse. It attempts to stage a series of encounters among these writers, encounters or "relatings" in the sense of correlation and narration. The first relation is that expressed by Paul Ricoeur, who states that time becomes human only when it is articulated in narration and narration becomes human only when it describes the features of temporal experience. The second relation, or set of relations, occurs in the plural, interrupted, yet interconnected topos of the Americas. Through an analysis of the texts of three authors of this geographical area I explore how notions of time imported by the European conquerors, combined with the disconnected memories of African slaves, relate to the different situations of each, producing new conceptions of myth, history, space and family structures. I first examine how time is motivated by the historical, mythical and political context in which it takes place, whereby the gaps in the slaves' memories explain the absence of a certain and single origin. I then examine how time can be read in terms of spatial representation; how, for instance, the fragmented geography of the Caribbean inscribes an interrupted time, or how the imagined structures in Borges's fictions, such as the labyrinth, illustrate infinite time within an enclosed frame. In the last chapter, I first show the correlation between genealogy and time, comparing the displacement of paternal roles to the dismantlement of linear chronology. In the case of Perse, the father is first idealized then fragmented, as is the past. In the case of Borges, the structure of the father, which frames a multitude of other father figures, is representative of a time that proliferates yet remains controlled. In the case of Glissant, the absence of fathers as such corresponds to the absence of a structuring chronological principle. In this context, I draw a comparison between the role of women who are no longer excluded from the historical temporal frame, but who instead become its propagators.

The common good in a plural society: Muslims, Christians and the Public Arena in Britain

Abstract: This thesis develops an idea of how the common good might be pursued in a plural society, beginning from Jonathan Sacks' vision of such a society as a'community of communities'. It does so principally by developing Alasdair Maclnytre's concept of 'tradition'. Chapter 1 begins by assembling conceptual tools for the task, drawing on the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines. These include understandings of morality, plurality, community relations, the common good, the public arena, and modernity. Chapter 2 begins to refine these tools through a case study of The Satanic Verses controversy. The analysis is achieved principally by viewing the controversy in terms of a conflict between two communities of interpretation, a'literary community' and 'the British Muslim community'. While it is recognised that these constructs are over-simplistic, it is argued that the conflict can most fairly be viewed by seeing participants in the controversy as members of communities of interpretation, each with their own history, practices and identities at stake. In the course of the chapter, the 'literary community' is identified as broadly 'liberal' in outlook. Liberalism is then the topic of Chapter 3, in particular recent theoretical formulations of liberalism in the work of Rawls, Kymlicka and Galston, and their application of liberal theory to minority cultures in plural secularised societies. Chapter 4 provides an account of the failure of such liberal approaches according to Maclntyre, developing his concept of tradition as an alternative way to safeguard the integrity of individuals and communities, and to pursue the common good in a plural society. Chapters 5 and 6 seek to understand aspects of British Muslim and Christian communities respectively in the light of this analysis, in particular their inter-relationship with British society, and their contribution to the common good. Chapter 7 then problematises and refines the concept of tradition through an examination of the work of John Milbank, suggesting an understanding of tradition which combines teleological orientation, emphasis on concrete cultural practices and recognition of difference. Finally, Chapter 8 applies this refined concept of tradition to two contested fields; the international debate on Islam and human rights, and multicultural, citizenship and religious education in schools in England and Wales.

Maintenance system automatically executing processing jobs according to a defined work-flow

Abstract: A maintenance system for a wide area work-flow system in which plural work-flow systems operates with linking via a wide area network. A historical information management unit is connected to the wide area network and maintains operation history information for each of the plural work-flow systems operating automatically according to the work-flow defining a processing job flow. When a work-flow system of the plural work-flow systems recovers from system-down, mismatch or discrepancy is detected by comparing the historical information of the work-flow system with the historical information of the other work-flow systems of the plural work-flow systems. To improve the reliability, the operation history information stored in the historical information management unit is used when the work-flow systems are recovered from system-down.

Automatic method for generation of summary of subject

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for automatically generating the summary of the subject of a document which can be read by a machine. SOLUTION: A document including first plural sentences and second plural terms is read by a machine, and a processor executes an instruction stored in an electronic configuration in a memory connected with the processor. The terms in the first number are selected from the second plural terms as the terms of a subject, each sentence of the first plural sentences is scored based on the generation of the terms of the subject in each sentence, and the sentences in the second number are selected from the first plural sentences based on the score of each sentence.

Es la interpretación arbitraria realmente arbitraria

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to examine the notion of arbitrary interpretation. The author considers five different constructions in Spanish, which allow for an arbitrary subject, and investigates how these unspecified subjects are really interpreted. It is shown that what has been termed arbitrary interpretation covers different types of readings, which result from a variety of factors such as the tense aspect, person and number features of the verbal form, and the appearance of certain adjuncts, among others. In addition to the two main types of arbitrary interpretation - the quasi-universal and the quasi-existential -, it will be seen that there is another reading available : the Corporate reading. This reading picks out some socially designated group of people and can be expressed by arbitrary plurals, impersonal-se and the infinitival construction. Finally, the author examines some contrasts between the arbitrary plural and the impersonal-se construction which point to the existence of an unspecified referential reading, separate from the quasi-existential, and suggest that factors such as the irrelevant/relevant character of the referent seem to have a bearing on the interpretative possibilities of the impersonal-se construction

Speech recognition device and its method and phonetic translation device

Abstract: PURPOSE: To obtain a speech recognition result without using a grammar rule. CONSTITUTION: In an analyzing part 3, a voice inputted via a voice input part 1 and an A/D converter 2 is acoustically analyzed and the feature parameter of the voice are extracted. In a recognition part 4. Speech recognitions are performed based on the feature parameters to obtain plural recognition result candidates. Plural examples are stored in an example database 7 and in an example retrieving part 5, degrees of similarities between plural recognition result candidates obtained in the recognition part 4 and examples stored in the example database 7 are calculated and the speech recognition result is obtained based on the degrees of similarities.

Drift and noun plural reduplication in afroasiatic

Abstract: 0. Overview Noun plurals showing partial reduplication appear sporadically in a wide variety of Afroasiatic languages, particularly in the Chadic, Cushitic, and Semitic groups.' In past treatments it has generally been assumed that these examples are remnants of a widespread proto-Afroasiatic process of plural formation by reduplication. The following paper argues on empirical and theoretical grounds that it is more likely that reduplication as such was not a means of plural formation in proto-Afroasiatic and that a reduplicated plural only occurred as a morpho-phonologically conditioned variant of the prosodically extended stem (or 'internal-a') plural. This paper seeks to demonstrate that in those languages where reduplication does occur as a major means of plural formation it is more easily interpreted as an innovation rather than as a conservative retention. 1. Drift and reconstruction The reconstruction of prehistoric developments in languages is not a deductive procedure, but is necessarily an exercise in hypothesis and evaluation of probability. Since all sorts of changes can be imagined to have taken place in prehistoric periods, perhaps the most important project for historical linguistics is the discovery and definition of principled, empirically-based constraints within which to develop hypotheses about particular changes. The success of the Neogrammarians in reconstructing the prehistoric relationships among the sound systems of Indo-European languages was not due to the development

English in Transition 1500-1700: On Variation in Second Person Singular Pronoun Usage 1

Abstract: In the course of the Middle English period, a number of major changes took place in the structure of English. Most important among these were: a) the reduction of inflectional contrasts in nouns, verbs, and adjectives; b) the shift from a basic word order SOV to one predominantly SVO; and c) the trend towards the use of analytic resources instead of synthetic ones. These and other related changes were still going on during the Early Modern English period. In fact, because of the ongoing changes, speakers and writers of Early Modern English often had at their disposal a choice of forms and constructions where today we have no choice -for example, in verb inflections, in personal and relative pronouns and in several other areas of grammar and syntax-. In the course of the seventeenth century, however, the abundance of variant expressions was gradually reduced, with the result that by the eighteenth century the structure of the language came to resemble fairly closely the structure of Present-day Standard English. It can be said, therefore, that in the course of the period under discussion there is a movement from greater grammatical variability and lack of organization towards a more regulated and orderly state. This description of the development of Early Modern English is, of course, a traditional one, but, still, there is a great deal of truth in it. In what follows, I will try to illustrate some of this existing variability by looking at a well known grammatical development starting in Middle English, but completed only within the Early Modern period. Specifically, my discussion will focus on the variation between the second person singular pronouns thou and you, that is, the so-called pronouns of address. I have chosen this much explored topic primarily because it constitutes a good illustration of how complex could at times be the contrasts in usage between existing variant forms. So complex, in fact, that the changes affecting the pronouns of address from the fourteenth to the early eighteenth centuries are usually described as lying at the interface of linguistics proper, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. Let me start, then, with a brief summary of the history of the second person pronouns since Middle English times. As is well known, ye/you were originally the pronouns of the second person plural (from OE ge/eow respectively); thou/thee, in their turn, are historically the singular forms (from OE thu/the). From as early as the 13th century, however (cf. Mustanoja 1960: 126; Blake 1992: 536), ye/you came to be used as singular pronouns of reverential or polite address, probably on the model of French vous, which could also be used in this way (see Wales 1983: 108). The use of you as a polite form became more and more widespread, until it eventually brought about the decline of thou/thee. Opinions vary as to the exact date when this took place in actual speech, as distinct from literature, but, on the whole, it can safely be said that by the middle of the 18th century (cf. Strang 1970: 140; Barber 1976: 212) thou had become confined to biblical use, to the speech of Quakers, and to a sociolectally restricted use in local dialects.