Grammaticalisation is the transmutation of words with concrete, specific meanings into grammatical elements, like pronouns, prepositions, and verb endings. One example of grammaticalisation is the French “ne…pas” construction. It came from the Latin “non dico” (I do not say), turning into “je ne dis” — “non” having eroded into “ne”. The “pas” (meaning step) was added for emphasis, but lost its meaning and became a grammatical element after the “ne…pas” construction was used with verbs other than walking or running. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
